Blindsight
by Methinks
Summary: When Tsunade had asked him what he was going to do on his vacation he'd just smiled. But of all the things he might have said, caring for a crippled redhead sure as hell wasn't one of them. Isn't it funny the way life works out sometimes? Naruto/Tayuya
1. Prologue

**Blindsight**

Prologue

by Methinks

**-----**

The concept for this story was first conceived around the time the Hidan/Kazuku arc first began and is written as such, so you can pretty much throw away anything that happened afterwards – it never happened and it never will.

Personally? I feel that's a very good thing.

**-----**

When Tsunade had asked Naruto three days ago what he was planning on doing over his vacation, he'd just smiled and kept quiet. There was no way he going to tell her he had all but spent the last month dreaming about sake, ramen, hot springs, and women. He got in enough trouble as it was without the terrifyingly strong blonde realizing just how much her perverted teammate had corrupted him.

But of all the things he had considered telling her, taking care of an ornery, foul-mouthed, crippled redhead was not on the list. In fact, that particular scenario actually rated near the top of his 'things not to do on vacation' list - right up there with backpacking through Iwa or playing pattycake with the Kyuubi.

Not that he had any clue what he was getting into when he'd first left the village. Right then, he'd felt on top of the world. For the first time in almost a year, he'd be able to do whatever the hell he wanted without the threat of paperwork looming over the horizon. He could vaguely remember Sarutobi-jiji saying something about paperwork being a Hokage's greatest enemy but he'd never really been able to appreciate the truth of that statement until Tsunade had forced the Village Council to accept him as her eventual successor. Not only granting him his greatest wish but at the same time throwing him right into the jaws of his most insidious enemy yet.

The paperwork also made him develop a much better appreciation for the phrase 'the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence'. He almost wished Jiji had told him about the paperwork thing _before_ he'd promised to become Hokage.

Ever since then he'd been stuck behind a desk all day, every day – for 'training purposes' of course – and he hadn't even been made Hokage yet! In fact, he was strongly beginning to suspect that the old drunk was passing off _all_ her paperwork onto him instead of just the minor things she claimed to. Come to think of it, that was probably why she'd appointed him so early in the first place. As far as he was aware, she wasn't planning on retiring for a few more years yet.

Though he supposed he should just be grateful she'd at least given him a small office instead of a cubicle. Considering how bitchy she'd been for the past few months, he wouldn't have put it past her. For some reason she'd believed it was his fault her face on the monument had suddenly become old and wrinkled after she'd burned the new orange jumpsuit he'd commissioned. She'd been taking that one out on him for months, even though he fixed it hours later.

But it wasn't just the paperwork that irritated him. It was that she wouldn't even let him play with all the other cool perks of the job! Like the hat. She guarded that hat like it was a bottle of the finest sake ever made. Despite all his best efforts – including some truly ingenious schemes, if he did say so himself – he'd yet to get his hands on it. And not only that, but the mansion, the big desk, the law making – the stingy drunk kept all of it to herself. She wouldn't even let him play with the library of exciting kinjutsu scrolls the previous Hokages had acquired. And to top it all off, the wretched little tease kept dropping hints about all the cool stuff hidden in there. It was almost enough to drive a guy insane.

Well, he'd finally had enough and told Tsunade in no uncertain terms he was taking a vacation whether she liked it or not. Unsurprisingly, the old hag hadn't appreciated being ordered around in her own office and had expressed this disapproval quite explicitly. Her office had quickly erupted into what the Hokage's ANBU bodyguards had termed a B-class spat. The kind that left the office broken to bits and found the two bruised and bloody blondes off drinking at a nearby bar.

Eventually, over several bottles of sake and a pool table – during which, clever use of the twins as distraction won Tsunade the game quite conclusively – the two of them had reached a suitable compromise. Tsunade would send him on a month long C-class mission to a small village in the north-west of Konoha in order to "investigate" a strange occurrence that had been happening in the area for the last couple of years. In return, Naruto agreed to help her smuggle in extra sake for the next three months to replace the bottles Shizune kept confiscating.

Both blondes had toasted the deal immensely satisfied; Naruto would finally be able to see the sun again and Tsunade would once more be able to pass out on her paperwork.

When the woman had finally collapsed snoring on the bar table – Naruto's Kyuubi-accelerated metabolism enabling him to drink even the incurably alcoholic Hokage under the table – he'd left almost immediately. He'd prepared for his trip earlier in the day, packing all the necessary vacation supplies and sealing them away in one of his many scrolls, just so he could make his quick escape the moment he finally got her to acquiesce. At the last minute, however, he changed his mind and did the gentlemanly thing and took the snoring Hokage home first.

The photograph he frog-mailed to his perverted sensei minutes later more than made the trip worth it. He just hoped it wouldn't take too long for the red Jiraiya stripes to wear off her face. It would really suck to get back from his vacation only to get beaten to death.

-----

When he'd finally reached the little village that had requested the mission two days later, he'd found it to be pretty much what he'd expected. There were a little over 100 people living there with only a single inn where travelers could stay. Not that they got many. The innkeeper had been ecstatic at Naruto's arrival – apparently he was the first traveler to even pass through the town in several weeks – and had broken down when Naruto told him he wasn't planning on staying, he was just looking for information.

The blonde felt so awkward he went ahead and paid for a room for a week and left a clone there to keep up appearances. Never let it be said that Uzumaki Naruto failed to please.

As soon as he'd calmed the man down, Naruto followed his directions over to the town's tiny pub where'd be meeting his informant. The informant turned out to be a villager who had owned a small hunting cabin about two days away from the village. Apparently he went there for a week every year. But when it had come time for his annual hunting trip four years ago, he'd set off only to discover the cabin had completely disappeared. Even stranger, he'd spent hours looking for the cabin only to eventually realize he had been walking in a never-ending circle, one which continued until he'd finally given up the search.

Now, Naruto might not have been a genjutsu expert but endless circles sounded right up that alley. However, considering the man had been attempting to out drink Tsunade on one of her binges, Naruto couldn't help but wonder if those 'circles' wasn't simply the alcohol talking.

Thus it had been a skeptical Naruto who finally made his way north from the town, following the hazy directions the drunk had given him. At least he'd thought he was, the man's slurring had made him near impossible to understand so the blonde could have easily been traveling in a completely different direction. And this was assuming the lush even had the mental capacity to give directions in the first place.

He'd finally stopped several hours later as the sun sank down beyond the forested horizon, having absolutely no idea of where he was in relation to said cabin. But in the spirit of his new vacation, he hadn't really cared. He had plenty of time to waste and didn't want to work himself too hard just yet. He'd have plenty chance to do that later if he felt like it. Right then, his first day out, was simply not the time.

So it had been an extremely well-rested Naruto who'd woken up on the third day of his vacation, having slept in for the first time in what seemed like years. The first thing he'd done was unseal a cup of instant ramen from one of his many storage scrolls and three minutes later had seen him happily beginning the new day with what was assuredly the food of the gods. In his opinion, a day couldn't possibly begin any better.

Actually, he could think of a number of ways the day _could_ get better but all of them featured sleep and ramen quite heavily anyways so he figured he was at least off to a pretty good start.

Not being one to spoil good ramen with an excessive amount of work, he'd decided to get his searching finished while he was still eating. With hardly a thought, he'd created several dozen kage bunshin and sent them out to canvass the area with orders to disperse themselves in half an hour or the moment they found anything of interest, whichever came first. If there was one thing that his experiences as a ninja had taught him, it was that kage bunshin made mixing business and pleasure quite possible.

Having his ramen and eating it too, so to speak.

He'd just started on his fourth cup when the first clone dispersed itself several miles west of his current position. It had stumbled on a low-level, area effect genjutsu while approaching a large lake a couple miles to the south east. He'd had no doubts that this was the 'disappearing cabin' he'd been hired to investigate, but he'd only been halfway through his ramen and the genjutsu had been there for over four years now. There was absolutely no reason for him to rush. So he'd decided to go ahead and wait for his remaining clones to finish exploring before going off to investigate.

After all, he could quite literally hear that fifth cup of ramen begging him to eat it.

It had been a thoroughly satisfied Naruto that packed up camp twenty minutes later as the rest of his clones dispersed themselves. He finished up quickly but took one last look around the empty campsite to satisfy himself that he'd done the job properly. He'd grinned, not a single trace remained that he had ever been there - a habit Jiraiya had forcibly ingrained in him. The wretched pervert had come up with some truly horrifying punishments for whenever he forgot to do so when they were traveling.

To this day he still couldn't look at a kiwi without becoming nauseous.

He'd set a leisurely pace towards the genjutsu field. He'd figured it was most likely nothing more than a remnant of the war between Konoha and Oto all those years ago. Perhaps a fixed illusion meant to disguise an ambush that had simply never dissipated. Nothing he couldn't handle.

Despite his lackadaisical pace, he'd soon found himself approaching the large lake the clone had marked as the boundary of the genjutsu. Sure enough he'd felt a slight disturbance in his chakra as soon as he'd gotten near, a tingle indicating he'd stepped into the field.

S-ranked ninja that he was, the one field Naruto had never been able to grasp was genjutsu. In fact, he had such a complete inability with the illusions that he rather suspected Kyuubi of actively sabotaging his growth in that area. After all, kitsune were known for their trickery and illusions and he didn't doubt the wretched little furball would have spitefully denied him the ability simply out of some twisted sense of possessiveness.

But what he lacked in constructing genjutsu however, he more than made up for in destroying them. When a shinobi uses a genjutsu, they're creating a delicate framework of their own chakra over the target using the target's chakra coils as an anchor. In other words, human chakra anchored to a human chakra system.

But if there was one thing human chakra had been never meant to mix with it was demon chakra. So while Kyuubi might have prevented him from using the techniques, he couldn't prevent Naruto from flooding his coils with the bijuu's unnatural chakra, thus upsetting the anchors and completely destroying the illusion.

Shikamaru once described it as taking a sledgehammer to a intricate stained-glass window. Naruto rather appreciated the analogy.

By this point using the Kyuubi's chakra was almost as easy as his own, so all it took was a thought and the red chakra spiked through his system and shattered the illusion. Just in time for him to catch a glimpse of several twisted looking creatures moments before his vision was obscured by the massive club swinging directly at his face.

-----

Author's Notes:

Honestly, I couldn't think of any cruel or unusual punishments involving kiwis. It is, however, my steadfast opinion that fruit should not be hairy. Thus... kiwis.

I also want to make it clear where the inspiration for this story came from. I got the idea from re-watching old episodes of Rurouni Kenshin. One of the antagonists in the story is a blind spear user named Uonuma Usui. After he lost his eyes, he developed super human hearing he termed the Shingan or 'Eye of Heart'. His hearing is strong enough to allow him to even hear the creak of muscles as they tense and thus predict what his opponent is going to do.

It is Usui that sparked this story and not, as someone suggested, Daredevil. To be quite frank, I hated the movie. A two hour waste of my time. I could go on a rant about why exactly it sucked but I'll spare you. I just wanted to set the record straight and make sure everyone knew this story was birthed from 'pure anime awesomeness' and not 'irritating Hollywood shit'.

Enjoy_._

_-----_

Published: 10.09.09

Updated: 11.06.09


	2. Chapter 1

**Blindsight**

Chapter 1

by Methinks

**-----**

Finely honed reflexes reacted immediately, propelling him over the massive weapon and onto a higher branch in the same tree. He leapt again, backwards this time, as he sensed a second attack coming from above him. Only to have the new branch shatter beneath him as something struck from below.

He used his chakra to stabilize the falling branch enough for him to jump off of it into yet another tree. He landed in a crouch, all his senses stretched out, feeling for any more incoming attacks. He sensed nothing for several moments, before a haunting melody he'd been unable to hear before began to whisper through the air.

His opponents reappeared, arranging themselves on a large branch several trees in front of him. There were three of them, each a massive golem of misshapen flesh. He couldn't help a flash of pity, these guys made even the victims of some of Orochimaru's more twisted experiments look like beauty queens.

The first one, the club wielder, was ironically less freakish looking than many of the opponents he'd been forced to face over the years. Naruto was almost tempted to call him normal if it weren't for the fact that he towered twenty feet over the blond ninja and the unhealthy gray pallor of his skin. Or the fact that he swung that massive iron club of his as easy as swinging around a cardboard tube.

But even as – relatively – normal looking as he was, he only made his companions stand out all the more in comparison.

The second was just as tall as the first, if a little broader. Whereas his companion used a small tree for a weapon, he had a pair of bone claws cutting out over his hands, bound to his arms by bandages wrapped all the way around his forearm.

It wasn't the weapon drew Naruto's gaze, however, but his skin. It was the vibrant pink of a freshly healed scab, standing out in sharp contrast to the corpse flesh of the other two. Naruto's eyes didn't linger on it long before traveling up to the man's face and widening in disgust.

His eyes and ears were covered by a white blindfold tied behind his head, which only accentuated the malformed flesh covering the top of his skull. It looked even worse than he remembered Ibiki's head being. It was as if someone had taken a blunt knife to his skull, sawing through the tissue and peeling it back again and again until all that remained was a mishappen mass of scars, a complete mockery of human flesh.

And if that wasn't enough, his mouth had been sewn shut by rusty wire. Whoever had done that was truly sick; this was a level of cruelty even Orochimaru wouldn't stoop to.

But if Naruto had been disgusted by the claw user, the last one truly revolted him. His skin, where visible, looked like it belonged to a corpse left out to rot. Unlike the other two, he carried no visible weapon, in fact lacking the arms to use one. Instead his entire torso was wrapped tightly in bandages. They stopped at his neck, which had been broken, his head bent back at an unnatural angle. He would be constantly forced to face the opposite direction of wherever he wanted to look.

Or where he would have wanted to look however. Like the claw user, his eyes were blindfolded, this time by bandages that wrapped all the way up from the top of his nose to the crown of his skull. Where someone had seen fit to drive a mass of enormous, rusty nails through the bandages and into his skull in a tight grid-like pattern. As if it was some sort of twisted pincushion. His mouth had been sewn shut by wire as well.

It was only through years of experience dealing with the horrors of war that he forced down the bile rising up in his throat. Sometimes the depravity of humanity could disgust even the hardened jinchuuriki. Which was all the more reason these were not opponents for him to underestimate. Anyone who could withstand such gruesome tortures and then turn around and embrace them were foes to be extremely wary of.

So instead of recklessly charging in, he waited in silence them to attack. Somehow it simply didn't seem right to employ his usual taunts against people unable to respond. Silence reigned through the forest, broken only by the haunted cries of the flute writhing through the air.

Until the music stopped just as suddenly as it had begun, giving way to a hoarse shout from below. "So you miserable bastards finally decided to get it over with?"

Naruto looked down in surprise to see a woman leaning heavily against a tree on the ground below. Or at least he thought she was a woman, it was hard to tell through the dirt and mud covering her small frame and the tattered rags hanging loosely off her body. The shinobi side of his mind noted that, judging by the way she was leaning, she also seemed to be favoring her right leg. A potential advantage to exploit if it came to it.

"I always knew it was just a matter of time before one of you self-righteous sacks of anal seepage came to take out the fucking trash! But you cum-guzzling asswipes just had to wait four years to do it, didn't you? Just couldn't pass up the the chance to fucking make me suffer."

Naruto whistled under his breath. There's no such thing as a clean-mouthed shinobi but this woman was taking vitriol to a whole other level. He was pretty sure he'd never been quite as insulted in his life. Compared to 'cum-guzzling asswipe', dead last just didn't seem quite as nasty anymore.

Between having no idea what this obviously crazy woman was yelling about and his shock at the unexpected verbal barrage, Naruto found himself unable to speak. The woman was far from through though. "Well guess the fuck what? I'm not gonna fucking sit back and let you worn-out dildos off me quietly!"

Naruto finally had enough. "Look, lady!" he shouted over her. "I have no idea what you're talking about! I'm just here to investigate a missing cabin!"

"Like I'm going to believe that you shithead!" She didn't say anything else but instead raised what appeared to be a crude, wooden flute to her lips. "I'll teach you fuckers to try and kill me!"

The tenebrous sound that flowed from the rough instrument was harsh and grainy but Naruto couldn't help but be impressed in spite of himself. The fact that she could coax a melody out of it at all was a testament to her skill as a musician. Any further musings on her artistic prowess were swept aside, however, as the three freaks launched themselves back at him – their movements spastic and jerky but swift.

Naruto disappeared in a swirl of leaves, a trio of kunai sailing out from where he had stood towards each attackers' heart. He watched aghast as none of them so much as swerved from their path an inch or even tried to block. They simply allowed the knives to bury themselves in their chests without so much as a twitch. It was like they didn't even feel it.

Then again, they probably didn't. Considering they had their mouths sewn shut and nails shoved in their skull and Kyuubi knows what else, a little kunai's probably not going to bother them. Hell, the bastards probably even enjoyed it.

Kunai proven ineffective, Naruto resorted to his signature technique. Summoning up a dozen Kage Bunshin, he ordered the clones to attack straight on. For a few moments, it seemed his favorite jutsu had earned yet another notch in it's already massive belt, his clones knocking the three creatures around like rag dolls. But even after taking a few minutes of beating the three showed absolutely no signs of stopping.

Naruto scowled. He was beginning to understand just what Jiraiya meant when he complained about sparring with Naruto. Having to fight an enemy who takes hit after hit and doesn't know when to give up really _was_ terribly frustrating. As quickly as the thought had registered with him, his scowl became a wide grin. Now there was more at stake than just a simple fight, he couldn't let them beat him at his own game.

Naruto had his reputation to uphold. He'd show those guys the real meaning of stamina.

Just as soon as he began to summon up more clones to redouble his efforts, the three attackers disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving him staring around dumbly trying to figure out what just happened. He hadn't felt any chakra discharge so it wasn't a Shunshin or a Kawarimi or any one of the multitude of other escape techniques he'd seen. In fact he hadn't felt any chakra at all. It was like they had just up and disappeared, like someone had just dismissed a summon.

Unwilling to simply stand around and wait, Naruto ordered his remaining clones to spread out and find them. With no opponent to face and his adrenaline fading, he began to slip out of his battle ready state, his mind finally registering the harsh coughing beneath him – the sound having been dismissed as nonthreatening and therefore unimportant until now.

He looked down at the source and saw the woman from before doubled over in the dirt, one hand clutching at her throat and the other keeping a death grip on her makeshift flute. Naruto immediately felt his conscience being pulled from two different sides. On the one hand, the woman was sick and suffering. But she was also a chronic curser, apparently insane, and had attacked him without any provocation whatsoever. Not to mention he still had no idea where his three opponents had run off to.

He sighed. Every reason not to help her and yet somehow he still found himself jumping down to the forest floor beside her. Damn his saving people thing.

Inwardly wincing from the lecture he knew he'd be getting from Tsunade if she ever heard about this he asked, "Oi, you okay?"

Her coughing kept her from answering so he just waited out of her reach for the fit to subside. He might be stupid enough to help out an insane enemy but even he wasn't stupid enough to get up close to do it. He wasn't about to give her the chance to slip a knife through his ribs. Kyuubi might be able to heal little scratches like that in a matter of seconds but they still hurt like a bitch.

The coughing finally began to subside and when she was breathing normally again, he asked, "You alright?"

"Why the fuck would you care?" Her voice was even more hoarse than before. It was obvious the coughing fit had taken a lot out of her.

Despite himself, he felt mildly offended at her ingratitude. "Hey, you attacked me first!"

She pulled herself up out of the dirt, sitting up on her knees and looking towards him with closed eyes. She opened her mouth to say something right as a second coughing fit wracked her small frame, doubling her back over. This fit was far worse than the last one, each cough sending a fine spray of blood across the ground.

Now he truly was concerned. Either she was extremely good at faking disease and desperate enough to put herself through all that pain or whatever she had was serious and required immediate help. Naruto was more inclined to believe the latter. And if he was wrong – well, then Kyuubi would just get another chance to earn his keep.

Naruto moved frantically over to her side and wracked his brain for what little medical training Tsunade had managed to shove in there. Unfortunately, he was almost as bad at medicine as he was at genjutsu. He might not be the same loud-mouthed idiot he'd been in the academy but that didn't mean he'd had the patience to sit through lecture after lecture on biology and anatomy and the like. It hadn't taken long for the old hag to give up trying to teach him.

He reached out to help steady the woman's small frame against the fits wracking it, but she jerked away from him, sparking another harsh fit. Catching the hint, he sat back and her to come out of it on her own. Even he knew it wasn't very smart to cause his patient to injure herself further.

Finally, the fit passed and she sat up weakly, the blood glistening on her lips accentuating the despairing expression on her face. Her voice was weak and grainy when she finally whispered, "Just make it quick, will you?"

Naruto felt a brief spark of irritation at her continued insistence that he was out to kill her, but forced it away. Snapping at her wouldn't make things any better. "Lady, you need to get some help. Is there anyone I can..."

She cut him off, shouting, "Just fucking kill me already!" She coughed a few times as the yell strained her throat before dropping back down to a whisper. "I just want it to end already."

He was saved a reply as she dropped into yet another coughing fit, this one even worse than the previous two. Naruto's resolve stiffened – the woman was going to get help whether she wanted it or not. And seeing as how he was the only person there to provide it...

He reached down and scooped her up out of the dirt, lifting her into his arms bridal style. She struggled to get away from him but was too weak to break the insistent grip keeping her wedged tightly against his chest. A brief mental calculation told him he was just due east of the lake he'd seen on his way in so he leapt into the trees and headed in that direction. A cabin out in the middle of nowhere would need to be able to get water from somewhere and he was willing to bet his not inconsiderable gambling skills that that lake there made for prime real estate.

As he ran he could feel each cough wracking her body and he looked down at her in concern. The woman shouldn't be out here by herself in this condition – much less fighting future Hokages and hanging around with S&M connoisseurs. Then he realized exactly how much blood was soaking into his coat and doubled his speed. She needed to get help fast and he wasn't going to be able to do that in the woods.

Fortunately it only took a few more seconds to break out of the trees into the clearing around the lake. Like he'd expected, the cabin was situated a few yards from the shoreline, its door hanging open as if to welcome him and his patient to its sanctuary. He immediately altered his path, hurrying inside.

The interior was sparse, no amenities other than four walls, a roof, and a small wood burning stove. The rest of the place consisted of a small mat of piled furs across from the stove, a mass of worn-out clothes next to the door, and a rusted knife resting on top of a small tin of berries. It was mildly depressing to think that other than the flute she seemed so desperate to hang onto these were all her worldly possessions. It almost made _his_ childhood look good. Almost.

He moved over to the pile of furs and gently laid her down across them before pulling off his trench coat and giving it to her to cough into. With the state it was in, it wasn't like a little more blood was going to make much of a difference. Besides, years of practice had made him a master at getting blood out of clothing. It'd be nothing to wash it.

He summoned up a pair of clones, sending one to go fill up a canteen for the woman and the other to go collect some wood for the stove. There was still a little unburnt wood inside but it never hurt to be prepared. A quick katon jutsu started a small blaze; his clone could stoke it up when it got back with the wood.

Her coughing began to settle down just as his first clone came dashing back inside with the canteen. Taking it from him, Naruto dismissed the clone with a fist before sitting down on the edge of the makeshift bed while her fit finished subsiding. He held the canteen out for her as it stopped. "You need to drink something."

Wordlessly, she sat up and grabbed it from him, taking a few sips. She set it down in her lap before spitting up some more blood onto his coat. She grimaced, her hostility having seemingly disappeared. "That's going to have to be washed, isn't it?"

Looking down, he was shocked to see just how much blood covered it. "That's really not healthy, you know."

She managed a small laugh at that which degenerated into a few painful coughs. "I know."

Looking over, he noticed his last clone standing in the open doorway with the firewood. He motioned it over to the stove where it dropped the wood and went to work at the fire. With his doppleganger taking care of that, he began digging around in his pockets looking for the scroll with Tsunade's little first aid kit in it. However, he hadn't figured on the effect the sound of clinking kunai would have on the woman next to him.

She caught him completely unawares, he had no idea the punch was coming until he felt the blinding pain in the back of his skull. His was dimly aware of her trying to run out the door so he forced himself to his feet and began to stumble after her. But by the time the spots cleared from his eyes and he reached the doorway, he saw she had barely gotten past the door.

Scowling, he grabbed one of her arms and yanked her back against him. This time he didn't take any chances and pinned both her arms against her sides. He held her that way until she stopped struggling against him, then began to ease his grip up slowly. When he was finally satisfied she wouldn't run, he let go – at which point she elbowed him in the stomach. Hard.

"What the hell, lady!?" he wheezed.

"Don't touch me, asshole."

How's that for gratitude? He snapped back at her, "It was for your own good, you psychotic bitch!"

"Fucking mass of sphincter puss!"

Naruto wasn't sure how to top that one so went with a classic. "Ugly hag!"

She turned around and tried to hit him in the head again, but broke out into another fit. Naruto put his arm back around to support her. "Come on, let's get you back inside."

Gently he guided her back into the house. As she collapsed weakly onto the bed, she turned closed eyes to him and asked quietly, "So you're really not here to kill me?"

Naruto scowled. How many times did he have to say it before she got the point? "No, I'm not. Why the hell would I come out to the middle of nowhere to randomly off some crazy bitch?"

"You really don't know who I am, do you?"

"Why?" he responded, squinting at her, "Should I know you?"

For the first time he began to really examine her. Her clothes, a pair of dirty gray sweatpants and a large white shirt were both too large for her slim frame and all but falling apart. Her unhealthy thinness did little to help. Her skin, where he could see it, was pale and pasty from her obvious sickness and criss-crossed with thin white scars. Even so, Naruto was sure that despite her currently pathetic figure, if she managed to put some flesh and muscle back on she'd be quite the looker.

Her face, though gaunt, dirty, and smudged with blood, did ring a familiar bell back in his mind but he couldn't figure out from where. He could see a few shocks of red hair sticking out from underneath the ratty baseball cap she was wearing, which tickled at his memory further. She still hadn't opened her eyes. "Nope, nobody comes to mind..."

"Why should I tell you then?" she rasped.

Swiftly, he reached out and grabbed her flute from her. "Cause I have this!"

For the first time her eyes opened and for a moment Naruto was stunned. Whatever sickness she had might have degenerated the rest of her but her eyes had been left untouched. They were a brilliant hazel and brimming with such emotion that he was immediately captivated. Until he noticed the unshed tears brimming in them as she became frantic with the loss of her treasure.

She began beating weakly at his arm. "No, give it back! GIVE IT BACK!" She doubled over and began coughing again.

He immediately felt horrible. "I'm sorry," he said guiltily as he handed it back to her. She snatched it away despite the coughs. "I didn't know... I mean... ah, shit...

"Didn't know it was that important to you..."

The two of them sat in silence as she calmed down. She wiped away her tears with her shirtsleeve, smudging the dirt on her face even more. "My name's Tayuya," she muttered quietly, still bent over from the fit. "I was one of the Sound Four that attacked your village."

Naruto leapt up in shock. "But you were all killed!"

She laughed bitterly. "Don't worry. It wasn't for lack of trying. That fucking sand bitch sliced me to pieces and then damn near dropped a forest on my fucking head. Even I don't know how I managed to survive."

Naruto paused for a moment as he tried to absorb everything she had just said. Suddenly, the implications of her survival hit him and he felt his training as a shinobi take over in face of a possible threat to his village. "What happened to the other four?"

"Four?" She looked up, confused. "There were only three of us."

"There was you four and the bone guy."

She paused for a second then snorted. "Kimimaro, that little waste of sperm. I didn't even know he was still alive. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. He always was Orochimaru's little butt buddy, so eager and ready to please. Fucker would have cemented his own ass shut if he'd thought it'd make the snake happy."

She paused to give her voice time to rest before answering his question. "I have no idea. I wasn't exactly in a condition to go check."

"Why aren't you with Orochimaru now?"

Her face went blank before she answered emotionlessly. "He cut me off as soon as he felt my vitals dropping." Her voice started to rise. "Right when I needed him the most that BASTARD CUT ME OFF!" She started coughing again.

He sat back down next to her and waited out her fit. When she was done, he picked up the canteen again and held it out to her. He waited until she had taken a few sips before asking, "What do you mean he cut you off?"

Tayuya bent her neck and yanked down the back of her shirt, coming dangerously close to riping it. "He removed the fucking curse seal. The pain damned near alone killed me. Though it might be why I'm still alive. Got too damn pissed off at the cocksucker to die."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "You can't remove a curse seal. We've tried."

She laughed darkly. "_You_ can't remove the seal. Orochimaru can remove them whenever he pleases. They connect us to him, allow us to use his chakra to increase our own. But he can also cut off the chakra, destroying the seal. When he felt me beginning to die, he fucking removed mine as punishment. That butt-diddling sack of maggot-ridden shit could never tolerate 'failure'."

Naruto could feel a war going on in the back of his head. On the one hand she was a sworn enemy of Konoha and had been responsible for kidnapping Sasuke. On the other hand she was in such obvious pain that it went against every fiber of his being not to help her. He forestalled the decision. "How'd you manage to survive?'

Tayuya took another sip of water. "I wouldn't have if it hadn't been for this couple I ran into on some road. I think they were refugees from the war in Konoha and were heading back there since it was over. I never asked.

"The man was a doctor. He managed to stop the bleeding and stitch me up. Even fashioned splints for both my arms and my right leg. The guy didn't want to move me at night in my condition, so him and his wife set up camp there that night. The next day, they took me to the nearest village and redid everything properly. That night, while they were asleep I stole a knife, some old clothes, and a bunch of food and ran.

She shook through a few coughs before taking another sip. She continued on, defeated resignation resounding through her voice. "I didn't want to be anywhere near Konoha in case you assholes started looking for survivors. I panicked. So I ran. And while I was running the splint on my leg broke and I fell and hit my head on a rock.

"When I woke up the bone was sticking out of my leg..." She pulled up her right pant leg revealing a nasty scar a few inches above her knee before turning her eyes on Naruto. He knew those eyes, had seen them in the mirror as a child. Seen them in Gaara as a teen. To see them reflected in a normal human cut at him. "... and I couldn't see a fucking thing."

It was only then he realized that while her eyes were looking at him, they were completely unfocused. "But..."

Tayuya cut him off. "I can hear you breathe."

She continued on, no other explanation forthcoming. "I tried to reset the bone myself but it healed wrong." Silent tears began to leak from her eyes. "I can't walk without excruciating pain. The only damn jutsus I've used since I ran have been tiny ass genjutsus to trap animals to eat. This is only fucking conversation I've had in four years." She held up her flute "And if it wasn't for this, I would have gone insane long ago.

"Konoha took everything from me." She paused to wipe her eyes before looking up at him despairingly. "I'm blind. I'm crippled. I have nowhere to go back to and the only family I've ever known just tossed me away like trash. You took everything else from me," she repeated quietly.

"It's only right that you take the rest."

-----

Author's Note:

When I'd originally posted this story I'd given it a T rating. Only now in hindsight do I realize exactly how much I was underestimating Tayuya. Obviously, that's now changed.

-----

Published: 10.14.09


	3. Chapter 2

**Blindsight**

Chapter 2

by Methinks

**-----**

It hadn't taken Tayuya long to fall asleep once her coughing finally stopped; it was obvious the fits took a lot out of her. Naruto looked over at her and sighed. Well, perhaps fallen asleep wasn't quite the right way of putting it. She'd passed out while she was still crying so it was more like she'd toppled over on her side.

He picked her legs up from the ground and laid them more comfortably across the bed. He knew from experience she'd feel better that way; he'd found Tsunade passed out on her sofa like that more than a few times and she'd always been rather cranky for the experience. And at the moment a cranky Tayuya was just about the last thing he needed.

He walked to the door and looked wistfully out at the setting sun before collapsing against the wall right next to the furs with a deep sigh. He could already hear the lecture the hag was going to give him whenever he got back. Not to mention Sakura. And Jiraiya! The old pervert was going to love twisting this in the worst possible way. Like he didn't already have enough problems without the pervert trying to spin his life into yet another smut novel. He sighed again and thumped his head against the wall. "How troublesome..."

He tilted his head over to look at the sleeping kunoichi. She'd taken her hat off earlier, so he was able to watch the flickering fire from the small stove dance through her crimson locks. All he could recall of her from four years ago was the vaguest of images, but he was pretty sure her hair had been longer during Sasuke's escape. Now she kept it hacked it off at the base of her neck.

Though he supposed hair care wasn't a large priority for a blind cripple. He'd probably have cut his as too if he was in her shoes. Though he suspected that once she'd had a decent bath and scrubbed all that dirt and grease out, her hair would be quite beautiful. He'd always had a thing for redheads. Apparently it was a family thing.

Slowly his thoughts drifted off her hair and onto the woman herself. What the hell was he supposed to do with a crippled, half-dead, cast-off kunoichi from Sound? Especially now that he'd somehow coerced himself into taking care of her. It was times like this that he regretted coming up with that stupid nindo all those years ago. What options did he really have though? He supposed he could just leave her there but that'd be even worse than just killing her himself. Drawing out her death for days instead of a single moment. And considering he wasn't about to do the latter, how could he even consider the former?

But at the same time, he couldn't just bring her back to Konoha. That'd be a death sentence just the same. Curse seal or no curse seal, once her part in the attack four years ago became known, the majority of Konoha would be itching to tear her apart. The villagers were still carrying a massive hard-on for the Last Uchiha even now.

He sighed and thumped his head against the wall again. "Damned if I do, damned if I don't. How troublesome..." He winced. That was twice now. He knew things were bad when he started channeling Shikamaru.

He finally growled and stood up. He'd always been a take action guy by nature, sitting around thinking and drawing up plans was never going to be his strong suit. So it was long past time he got up his ass and did something. Anything.

He paced once across the cabin floor. First things, first. He might not be able to treat the disease but he could at least treat the symptoms. And that meant doing something about that cough. He didn't even have to run through a mental inventory to know he wasn't carrying anything that might help. With Kyuubi around, he'd never had to worry about disease before, so why bother carrying something for it?

It clicked. He remembered seeing a small pharmacy back at the village. And if there were pharmacies than there were doctors - or at least some sort of medical professional. Smoke and fire and all that. At the very least somebody should be able to suggest some other plan if the pharmacy didn't pan out.

The feeling of finally doing something purposeful after all the headache-inducing drama was starting to make him giddy. He gave the sleeping redhead a small, resolute grin. "Don't you worry, Tayuya. Nobody dies on Uzumaki Naruto's watch." He did his imitation of Lee's 'Good Guy Pose'. "Just you wait and see."

The smile slid off his face quick when he reached down to grab his coat off the floor and stuck his hand in a glob of bloody mucus. He grimaced. "Damn. That's nasty..."

Hurriedly, he wiped his hand off on a clean portion of the coat. A Kage Bunshin popped into existence a moment later and he handed over the filthy coat for it to clean. He watched the clone run off with it with a sinking feeling in his heart. It wasn't like he needed the thing but it just felt wrong to be going somewhere without it. It was like leaving without his orange jumpsuit all those years ago. Simply unthinkable.

But more important was the infirm he was leaving behind. Once coat clone finished he'd have at least one Kage Bunshin here to watch her but he wasn't quite comfortable leaving it at that. His clones might be ridiculously strong but it still only took just one lucky hit before she'd be completely defenseless. Not that he really had to worry about anyone attacking her but the years had drilled into him that it was better not to leave things to chance.

A few moments of wracking his brain and a bleeding thumb, brought him the answer in the form of a horse-sized toad. "Gamakichi!"

The toad grinned widely back at the blonde. "Boss! It's been a while since you summoned me. I was beginning to feel like you didn't love me anymore."

Naruto smiled back at the massive amphibian. "Don't be ridiculous. You know you're the only one for me."

Gamakichi brandished his overly large kunai back at him. "And don't you forget it. And I'm going to expect plenty of snacks before I forget about this."

Naruto laughed. "It's good to see you Gamakichi." Remembering the sleeping redhead, he sobered up. "Look, I need you to do me a favor. There's a sick woman inside there and I need to run off to buy her some medicine. I need you to watch and make sure nothing happens to her. If something goes wrong you can just dispel that idiot over there," he jerked his thumb at the clone standing waist deep in the lake, "and I'll come running."

Gamakichi nodded. "Sure thing, boss." The toad then narrowed his eyes at the blonde than looked back in forth between him and the cabin. He held up a foot and crossed two finned toes. "You're not like _that_, are you?"

Naruto blinked once before laughing. "You mean me and her? Oh, hell no. I haven't even known her for twenty four hours and I'm already considering drinking like the old hag. I can't even imagine what it'd be like if we were together."

The toad grinned cheerfully back at him before flopping down on the ground. "If you say so Boss. Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to her."

--

What had taken Naruto about eight hours to cover yesterday, he managed in six. Just in time to get to the little village as it started to come alive and the shops began to open. He landed outside the town and moved purposefully through the village's few streets to the small pharmacy he remembered seeing.

It was a simple place, a squat brick building that despite its worn exterior still managed to exude a welcoming atmosphere. Naruto pushed open the old oak door, the soft tinkling of bells announcing his entrance. He couldn't help the feeling suddenly out of his league as he walked in there and looked around. It was only then he realized he'd never actually been in a pharmacy before or had any idea what cough medicine looked like. The farthest he'd gotten in his lectures with Tsunade was basic anatomy and biology. Not medicine 101.

He was saved by the arrival of a genial, dumpy looking man with snow white hair and wearing a lab coat. "How can I help you?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Do you have any cough medicine?"

The man nodded. "I certainly do. Right back this way."

Naruto followed the smiling man to the back of the store where a tall shelf held row upon row of multi-colored syrups. The blonde took one glance at the multitude of brands and flavors and immediately turned back to the pharmacist. "Which one is your strongest? It's for a friend and she's very sick."

The man turned penetrating eyes on the blonde and Naruto had to resist the urge to fidget. A small part of him couldn't help but marvel at the ridiculousness of the situation. He was a future Hokage, had gone toe to toe with the strongest ninja the world had to offer and emerged victorious, and now here he was getting intimidated by a short, fat pharmacist. "You're that ninja from Konoha right? The one looking for the missing cabin."

Naruto felt like snapping to attention. "Yes, sir."

"And you're absolutely certain you need the strongest I have?"

"Yes, sir."

The pharmacist stared at him for a few more seconds before shrugging and motioning back up to the counter at the front. "Technically I'm not supposed to be handing this stuff out without a prescription but you Konoha shinobi saved me and my wife a few years ago. I suppose this is the least I can do."

Naruto sighed in relief. "Thank you so much, sir. This will really help her out. She's very sick and keeps coughing up blood..."

The pharmacist cut him off. "You're going to need more than just cough syrup then. Coughing up blood is extremely serious. You need to get her to a hospital immediately."

"I know, sir. Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy as that."

The pharmacist sighed. "No, it never is with you shinobi, is it?" He placed a small amber bottle in front of Naruto before stepping around the counter and heading to a small shelf in the back. "Just wait here for a minute, I have something else that might help."

He came back with a small green bag and placed it beside the medication. "Take these as well. It's not actual medicine, but a herbal tea for soothing the throat. It works surprisingly well. A company out of River just started pre-packaging the tea leaves in individual bags and mass marketing it. Apparently it's all the rage in Suna right now."

Naruto's face lit up brightly. He knew getting out and just doing something had been the right thing to do. "That's it! I'll take her to Gaara." He dug a wad of money out of his pocket. "How much do I owe you, sir?"

The man was looking slightly befuddled by Naruto's sudden mood swing but waved his hand dismissively. "Nothing. Like I said, it's the least I could do to help."

"At least give me your name please."

"It's Sawagejo Anji. Why?"

Naruto grinned at him. "Well Sawagejo-san, next time you stop by Konoha, ask the guards at the gate for Uzumaki Naruto. I'll buy you and your wife the best damn dinner you ever had." With that the blonde shinobi stuffed his precious cargo in his pockets and raced out the door. He had a redhead to help.

--

The excited Naruto managed to shave another thirty minutes off his time on the way back, setting what he was sure was the record speed for a leaf nin trying to help a sound nin. He landed behind the cabin with a loud thump, causing Gamakichi to come barreling around the corner to check out the source of the noise. "Jeez, Boss. You scared me."

Naruto smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry. How is she?"

The two began walking around to the cabin's door. "She still hasn't woken up yet."

"Any coughing?"

"Some, but nothing hard." The toad sighed as they stopped in front of the entrance. "You want to tell me what's going on Boss? Why are you out in the middle of nowhere with some sick woman you've never met before? You're not doing something stupid again are you?"

"It's complicated... Long story short, Tsunade sent me out on a vacation disguised as a C-class mission to investigate this cabin, I found her inside, and now I'm taking care of her."

The toad laughed. "Only you could go out on vacation and end up taking care of the sickest woman in the Elemental Nations."

Naruto gave him a lopsided grin. "That does seem to be my luck, doesn't it? Oh, one last thing then you can go. You have any idea how long it would take to get to Suna from here?"

The toad gave him a wink. "Are we running or are we _running_?"

Naruto chuckled, he knew there was a reason Gamagichi was his favorite amongst the toads. "Which do you think?"

The amphibian laughed. "I'd guess if you left now and hurried, you could be there by midday tomorrow."

"Thanks, 'Kichi!"

"Anytime, Boss!" The toad disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto was mentally wishing the toad good-bye when he heard a noise from the doorway behind him. He spun around to see Tayuya standing there, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Were you... was that a toad?" Her voice was even raspier than yesterday.

"Yeah. I've signed the Toad contract."

She nodded silently, no doubt filing that away. Crippled or not, she was still a kunoichi and he knew some habits just never died. "And did I hear you asking about going to Suna?"

"Yeah, I think I've figured out how to help you."

She scowled skeptically at him. "You weren't dropped on your head at birth by any chance, were you? I'm dying, you fuckhead. The only thing you can do to help is to just kill me now."

His smile slipped at her attitude. "You realize you're only making leaving you here a more attractive option?"

She didn't say anything, so Naruto pushed past her and into the cabin. He noticed his coat was folded up to one side with the clone snoring next to it. The blonde sighed in aggravation before pulling several scrolls out of his pockets and tossing them at the doppelganger, waking it up. "Get me a tin cup."

The clone saluted mockingly. "Aye, aye, Boss."

Naruto justed ignored the snarky doppelganger and stomped over to the stove, lighting a fire inside it. Behind him he heard Tayuya walk back into the cabin and collapse onto the bed. An awkward silence reigned for a few moments as Naruto pretended to busy himself with the stove before she finally spoke. "So, what do the sand bastards have to do with helping me?"

The blonde ignored her, still pissed off at her ingratitude. Here he was going to all this effort to help her, an enemy ninja, out and the bitch was still acting like none of it meant anything. Like she'd be better off dead. He'd seen more than enough of his friends die to realize there was no such thing as a worthless life. The fact that she kept saying that seemed like spitting on the graves of his friends.

He turned around just as his clone tossed him the tin cup it had unsealed. He reached down and unfastened his canteen from his belt. "Oi, I'm talking to you, you fuckhead!"

He turned back to the stove and put the cup on the stove burner, filling it with water. He could hear her limping around behind him but didn't pay it any attention until she punched him in the back of the head. Hard.

He turned around with a growl. "What the hell?! What's your problem, bitch?"

"I was talking to you, you fucking useless sack of spider vomit! I wanna know why the fuck you were talking about Sand!"

"'Cause I'm taking you there!"

"Hell no! I'd fucking kill myself before going anywhere near those bastards! Or did you forget about the god damn psycho bitch who tried to kill me?!" The stress on her throat sent her into another coughing fit. Despite his irritation, Naruto rushed to her side, grabbing her arm to maneuver her back to the bed. As soon as she sat and the coughing died down, she yanked her arm away and snapped, "What did I fucking say about touching me?"

"Don't and I don't give a damn," Naruto bit back. "And you need to stop all this yelling shit before you mess up your throat for good. Then how are you going to play your freaking flute?"

He stomped back over to the stove, ignoring her sudden silence. He stuck his finger inside the cup and yelped when the water burned the tip. He stuck it in his mouth and sucked on it while pulling out the packaged tea with his other hand. Once he'd dropped the tea bag inside he picked it up, grateful for the insulated handle, and brought it over to Tayuya.

He pulled up short when he saw the defeated expression on her face. All of the sudden, he found himself regretting his harsh words. The woman had been through far too much as it was, she didn't need him making things worse. Even as bad as his life had been, he couldn't imagine having to go through everything she'd gone through over the past few years. He supposed the least _he_ could do was have a little tolerance.

He sat down next to her and nudged her lightly with his elbow. "Hey, you're gonna play your flute again, alright. You just need to take better care of your throat."

She laughed bitterly and continued staring blankly at the floor. "Yeah, cause that's gonna do me a shit ton of good. 'Hey, Tayuya. You're dead as fuck but at least you have a good throat.'"

Naruto closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to keep from snapping back at her. "You need to stop talking like that. Now you're not going to die because I'm taking you to the hospital in Suna."

She snorted disbelievingly. "Yeah, what are you planning on doing? Just going to walk in there, 'Hey, I just picked up this Sound nin who helped plot to kill you all a few years ago. Would you like to heal her now, pretty please?' What fucking world are you living in?"

"Yes, I'm going to do exactly that. All I have to do is ask and Gaara'll have you treated. Nobody ever even needs to know who you really are."

"Yeah, just who the fuck is this Gaara jackass and why's he gonna listen to you anyways?"

"He's the Kazekage, that's who. And he's a good friend of mine and he owes me."

She snorted. "Are you trying to tell me a chickenshit like you is friends with the fucking Kazekage?"

"Yes," Naruto growled. "That's exactly what I'm telling you. Now drink this before I accidentally drop it and waste six hours of running." He winced as he grabbed the bottom of the cup so she could grab the handle without burning herself. Seconds later she had already snatched the cup from his hand without any help.

She glared at him. "What the hell did you do that for?"

He took a deep breath, it seemed he couldn't do anything helpful without getting snapped at. At this rate he was going to have a coronary long before he got her to a hospital. "Do what? And how did you know where the cup was. I thought you said you were blind."

"I adapted," she growled.

The two sat there for a moment but just when he thought no further explanation was forthcoming, she started speaking quietly. "When you lose your eyesight all of your other senses get sharper to make up for it. For me it was my hearing. I'm sure if you looked, you'd see the chakra coils in my ears have grown a shit ton. Unless I deliberately reduce the amount of chakra flowing through them, I can actually hear the sound bouncing off of everything and get a rough picture of the room."

Tayuya paused before muttering reluctantly, "And I could hear your skin burning when you touched the cup."

Naruto felt himself give a small grin. "Careful there Tayuya. You almost sounded concerned for a second."

His grin grew as a he noticed a slight flush rise to her cheeks. "I wasn't. And wipe that shit-eating grin off your face right now you little cocksucker." She started to raise the cup to her lips, but stopped when she finally noticed the smell of tea. "The fuck did you get tea from?"

It was Naruto's turn to blush. "I went and bought it."

"You went and bought..." She trailed off, her voice rising dangerously when she started speaking again. "Are you telling me that you ran all the way to that fucking village just to by some fucking tea?!"

"Throat," Naruto warned. "And yeah. I went and bought you some goddamn tea, so just drink it already."

She bristled and opened her mouth wide, no doubt to begin yelling at him, but closed it a moment later, forcing herself to calm down. It seemed he wasn't the only one feeling slightly guilty over their earlier exchange. "So that's what you meant about running six hours," she muttered before taking a sip.

Naruto watched, feeling some small pleasure break through his irritation at the look of relief on her face. He scooted backwards on the bed so he could lean back against the wall while she drank. The silence was tense but he was rather grateful for it nonetheless. The woman grated on his nerves in a way nobody else had ever managed. Even Tsunade at her Shizune-induced withdrawal worst had never given him such a headache.

Finally she put the cup down and spoke. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"This." She waved her free arm around vaguely. "The tea, the helping. All of this."

"Because that's my shinobi way."

She scoffed. "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Naruto felt himself beginning to get irritated again. The woman was a freaking roller-coaster. "That means since I said I was going to help you, I'm going to help you. I've never gone back on my word and I don't plan on starting now."

"Who the hell said I wanted your fucking help anyways?!"

"Throat," he warned yet again. "And I don't care if you don't want it, you've got it. I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror if I just walked away and left you like this."

"Well are you just Mr. Fucking Goody-Two-Shoes! Just who the fuck made you so perfect that you have to fucking go around rescuing people?" she shouted.

Naruto felt his self-control finally snap. "That's it! Why do you have to be such a bitch about this? Just accept the god damned help already!" He turned and punched the cabin wall. "FUCK!"

Knowing things were only going to get worse if he stayed inside with her, he stormed out the door and summoned up a good thirty clones. He desperately needed to blow off some tension and fighting was the best way he knew how, even if it was against himself. However, this time even the thrill of battle wasn't helping.

Suddenly he heard a shout from behind him. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" He turned to look but a clone took advantage of his distraction and landed a roundhouse kick on the side of his head, leaving Naruto on his back staring blankly up at the clouds.

A sudden rush of adrenaline forced the daze away as his mind registered an all too familiar club rushing at his face. He barely rolled out of the way in time. Anger propelled him to his feet, jumping up to see Tayuya sitting up against the wall of the cabin, playing her flute. Before he could shout at her, Pinhead charged him while Spikes finished off the few remaining clones.

He pumped chakra into his legs and leapt over the massive golem, landing next to the redhead and snatching away her flute with a snarl. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She glared at him and tried to snatch it back but he pulled it just out of her reach. "Hey, give me back my fucking flute!"

"Hell no! You just attacked me with it, you crazy bitch."

"No I didn't. I..." A strange emotion flashed across her eyes before she turned away and muttered, "Look, just fucking go with it. Okay?"

As Naruto stared at her, he felt something click as if something had passed between them in that brief moment. He didn't know if it was simply an epiphany of his own or something more, but he suddenly felt as if he was finally beginning to understand her, if only a little bit. She was actually trying, in her own totally fucked up way, to apologize the only way she knew how. And that meant more to him than she knew. Nobody ever apologized to him, not even his own friends. They all just took it for granted he'd forgive and forget without anything on their part. And they were right about that, he'd forgive every one of them in a heartbeat. But couldn't they at least say sorry anyways?

For this slip of a woman he barely knew to actually try and make the effort...

Wordlessly he handed her the flute and walked back to the shore of the lake where the three demons stood waiting. "Just make sure to quit before your throat starts hurting," he said quietly. She gave a small nod.

The haunting melody from yesterday began to whisper through the air the moment she brought the flute back up to her lips, her three demons springing at him as one. Even as he defended himself against the onslaught, he couldn't help but admire the way she effortlessly coordinated their attacks despite her crappy flute and ruined throat. He felt a thrill run through him as he imagined what she'd be like at full health. That'd be a fight worth having.

The pace of the melody began to pick up, the slow dirge becoming a wild screech. The golems' speed picked up, doubling in the blink of an eye, forcing Naruto back until he pushed himself faster in turn. A wild grin stretched out over his face as he finally lost himself in the familiar joy of the fight, the tension bleeding away as he worked out all of his frustrations on the unflinching, unwavering golems in front of him.

It seemed like mere seconds later that the three suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the redhead began to cough. Naruto rushed over to her, picking her up and bringing her back inside. "Dammit Tayuya! What did I tell you?"

He laid her back on the bed then grabbed the lukewarm cup of tea and handed it to her. When her shaking fingers nearly dropped it, he sat down besider her and enfolded her tiny hand in his, helping to steady the cup. She began taking little sips in between fits until finally her coughing subsided.

He started to yell at her but the words died in his throat as he looked down at her. He was suddenly struck by how small she really looked. Her attitude made it really easy to forget that she was still a very hurt, emotionally damaged woman. He got up off the bed and crouched down in front of her, tilting her head up to look at him.

"Why didn't you stop?" he asked softly. "You had to be hurting yourself."

"I couldn't." Her voice was wavery and uncharacteristically subdued. "You don't understand what it's like having your eyes suddenly taken away like that. Even with my hearing, it's... it's like everything's blurred. Like I'm looking through a foggy window. I can't read or see colors. I can see a blur that's your face but I don't even know what you look like.

"Except when I play," she whispered. "Then it's like everything is suddenly crystal clear again and I can _see._ Just like it was before that bastard made us go to your fucking village..." A lone tear slid down her cheek. "So I keep trying over and over again. Even though I know i'll have to stop, that it's never going to last, I just can't help it.

"And when it finally gets ripped away all over again... There's no way you can understand what that feels like."

Unsure of what to say or do, Naruto just sat down next to her and waited awkwardly while she pulled herself out of her slump. Finally, she asked quietly, "Do you really think they'll be able to help me?"

He didn't even have to think about it. "You have my word."

She nodded. "Then let's go."

-----

Author's Notes:

Overall I was pretty pleased with this chapter with the exception of this last scene at the end with devestated Tayuya; a complete pain in the ass to write and even after six or seven drafts of it I'm still unhappy. But what can you do? Still I think the biggest challenge this chapter was trying to write Naruto. He's a very emotional character to begin with and this chapter drives him all over the spectrum. I did my best to capture the mood swings and keep them realistic and in character but I'm not sure how well I succeeded. But it was either post the chapter now or keep going over everything ad nauseum, so here it is. Enjoy.

-----

Published: 10.19.09


	4. Chapter 3

**Blindsight**

Chapter 3

by Methinks

**-----**

The sun was still high in the sky when Tayuya finally dragged herself out of her slump and pronounced herself ready to go. The blonde refused, fighting with her until she agreed to turn in for a nap first. He wasn't about to take a sick, crippled woman on a long journey through difficult terrain if she was cranky from lack of sleep. Come to think of it, he wasn't about to take a sick, crippled woman on a long journey through difficult terrain if _he_ was cranky from lack of sleep.

He did a quick mental calculation in his head. He'd run into the redhead at around 0800 hours yesterday. If he read the sun's position right it was probably about 1400 at the moment which meant he hadn't slept for about thirty hours. Thirty hours wasn't much comparatively speaking – he was trained to go for up to a week with minimal loss of abilities – but it was still an inconvenience he really didn't want to deal with at the moment.

He took a spot up against the wall to take his own nap. It didn't take long for him to drop off, the emotional stress over the past day pulling him under as soon as he shut his eyes. When he next opened them, Tayuya was still sleeping and the sun was beginning to dip down on the horizon. He figured he'd gotten about five hours of sleep – more than enough to hold him for the time being.

He stood up and stretched with a wide yawn. He concentrated briefly, forcing his chakra to cycle swiftly throughout his body – originally a chakra control exercise, he'd found it also did wonders for waking up, the rush of chakra drawing out the stiffness in his muscles and accelerating his heart to full awareness within seconds as opposed to minutes.

Now fully awake, he looked around the cabin, taking stock of the few items scattered around. There was Tayuya's few things, of which he'd probably only keep the berries - assuming they were even still good. Maybe the furs too; while worn he still might be able to sell them for some small change. Her clothes on the other hand – or what she tried to pass off as clothes – just needed to be burned. He knew of at least two towns not too far out of the way where they could stop off to pick her up some new things.

On second thought, he'd keep the rusty hunting knife as well. With a little bit of elbow grease and polish, he could get all that rust off, sharpen it up a little, and give it back to her as a nice, little momento. Assuming she even wanted to keep anything that might remind her of the past few years.

He noticed the tea still sitting next to the stove and decided to make her another cup for when she woke up. He re-lit the stove with a thin stream of flame, putting his tin cup back on the fire and refilling it with water from his canteen. He'd wake her up when the water finished heating up, assuming she didn't get up first.

He pulled out one of his sealing scrolls and unrolled it with a flick of his wrist. It only took him a few minutes to draw up three more storage seals and seal in the berries and the knife. The furs would have to wait until after she woke up.

As he rolled it back up and slipped it into his pocket, his hand bumped against a small glass bottle he'd forgotten about. He pulled the cough medicine out of his pocket and sat it on the floor next to the stove. He took another glance around the cabin to make sure he wasn't missing anything. The tin cup, the tea, and the medicine were all together by the stove, and the furs and his coat were currently cushioning the sleeping redhead.

With nothing left to do, he decided to run through a few kata routines until the water was ready or she woke up, whichever came first. A few minutes of stretching later, he slipped into his first stance and began moving slowly through one of the most basic katas he knew. He finished that one and moved right into the next, speeding up slightly. Two katas later and he was a blur, dodging and striking at imaginary enemies faster than most ninja could ever hope to achieve.

He finished up his latest kata just in time for his sensitive ears to catch the sound of Tayuya coughing as she began to wake up. He shook his limbs to loosen them up slightly before making his way back inside. She was sitting up on the makeshift bed, his coat discarded to the side, coughing lightly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. It was really rather cute. "Morning, Sunshine."

She scowled at him. "How long was I out?"

"Almost six hours? Maybe seven. I made you another cup of tea."

She grunted as he brought it over there, making a point to snatch it out of his hands before he could burn himself the same way he'd done yesterday. Her fingers brushed lightly against his as her slim hand gripped the handle right beneath his, causing a slight blush to grace both their faces. Naruto couldn't help but get rather irritated with himself – future Hokages weren't supposed to blush like virginal school girls. Especially over something as simple as hands touching.

An awkward silence filled the cabin, reigning for a few moments until he turned away uncomfortably. He glanced around, looking for something to busy himself with and alleviate the tension. He pulled his scroll back out of his pocket and unrolled it again, sealing away the rest of the tea. Turning to the stove, he emptied the rest of his canteen on the flames, dousing the fire in a hot burst of steam.

He beat a hasty retreat out of the cabin, heading over to the lake to refill his canteen. He took his sweet time, drawing out the process for several minutes until he couldn't possibly wait any longer without it being intentionally rude. With a sigh he headed back to the redhead, wondering again which god he'd pissed off enough to land him in this awkward situation.

She'd finished the tea by the time he slipped back inside, quietly handing him the cup to seal away as well. He made quick work of it, before grabbing the furs as she stood up and sealing those away as well. Now the only thing left was the cough medicine.

He picked it up from its spot beside the stove and unscrewed the lid. "Here, I want you to take a sip of this before we go."

"Sip of what?"

"Just some cough syrup."

Her head whipped around to focus on him and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Some what?" she growled. Naruto was already beginning to recognize that growl. That was her 'you better not be saying what I think you're saying or else' growl.

He scratched the back of his head, weighing his words carefully. He had no doubt he was treading in dangerous territory. "Cough syrup. I picked up a bottle the same time I bought the tea."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. "Since when am I some fucking charity case?"

"It's got nothing to do with charity. I just wanted to help."

"Isn't that the fucking definition?!"

"Fine. You don't want charity, than you can pay for everything as soon as you get your throat back."

Definitely the wrong thing to say. She snarled audibly and began stomping her way towards him. "And how the fuck am I supposed to do that, huh, you worthless sack of maggot-ridden shit? In case you've forgotten, I have no money and every fucking thing I own is in this god damn cabin!"

"You can pay it back by playing your flute for me!" She stopped suddenly in her tracks, her face looking as surprised as he himself felt. He had no idea where that had come from. Though if he'd been any less shocked, he was sure he would've been laughing at the dumbfounded look on her face.

Her expression quickly settled back into the dangerous scowl he was getting so familiar with. "The hell do you mean by that?"

"I meant that as soon as you can play again I'd like for you to play for me."

He watched uneasily as a furious storm gathered behind her unseeing eyes. "Quit fucking with me, you fucking asshole!"

"I'm not fucking with you! What's so unbelievable about me wanting to listen to you play?"

The furious expression on her face slowly began to slip into a vulnerable look as she realized he was telling the truth. "You really just want me to play for you?" she asked quietly, her voice hoarse from the yelling. He nodded. "Why?"

For once in his life, Naruto decided to pass up a chance for some glib answer and just told her truthfully, "Cause I've never heard anything more beautiful in my life."

For the first time since he'd met her, she gave him a genuine smile. There was no sudden change into a beautiful princess or any of that other crap he'd read in one of the books he'd stole from Sakura back when they were still genin. She was still the same dirty, pale, and sickly Tayuya she'd been a second ago. But it softened up the usually harsh, angry lines of her face, allowing Naruto to see for just a moment a glimpse of the person hiding behind that near perpetual scowl.

And inexplicably, he decided he rather liked that person.

"No one's ever asked me to just play before," she whispered almost wonderingly to herself. Naruto knew it hadn't been meant for his ears, being barely audible to his fox enhanced hearing. So he simply pretended he hadn't heard a thing, forcing down the scowl threatening to cross his face at her revelation. Nobody should ever have to believe they were too worthless to be appreciated.

He dropped it, going back to the cough medicine. "Here, just take a sip. I promise it will help." This time she took it without complaining, though her glare came back full force. Naruto couldn't help but smile at the restoration of the status quo – as lovely as her smile was, a Tayuya without her glare simple wasn't a Tayuya at all.

Finally, satisfied now that she'd taken her medicine, he turned and gave her a wide grin. "You ready to go?"

His smile dimmed somewhat as she only scowled and stomped outside but she didn't argue with him, something he was quite glad for. They'd already had a nasty debate before she went to sleep over their traveling arrangements and he really didn't fancy having to rehash it. It had taken them nearly an hour to come to the agreement it would work easiest if Tayuya rode on Naruto's back.

Although, she was still stubbornly insisting he should be carrying her in a litter.

He followed her outside but, as he turned around to let Tayuya climb on his back, found she wasn't behind him anymore. Looking around he realized she wasn't even outside. He trotted back to the cabin and looked inside. Sure enough she was in there sitting up against the wall, unfocused hazel eyes staring blankly across the room.

He stepped inside and sat down next to her. The two sat together in silence, Naruto knowing from experience how difficult a change like this could be. "It feels strange," she said finally. "I've spent over four years living here, hating every minute of it, but now I'm finding it hard to leave."

"I know the feeling." She looked over at him skeptically. "I grew up by myself in a shitty old apartment given to me as charity. The place had so many bad memories, but even once I'd saved up enough money for a new place, I couldn't make myself move."

He paused for a second. "Finally, one of my teachers saw something was bothering me and asked about it." He smiled fondly at the thought of Iruka. "He can be a real wimp sometimes, but he's smart. Anyways, he told me that I didn't want to leave because even though I hated the place, I knew what to expect, you know? It was safe and comfortable. But just because we don't know what to expect with something new, which can be scary as hell, doesn't mean we're not moving on to something better."

"And then you moved?"

"Nope," Naruto said brightly. "It wasn't until a few months later when he told one of my other teachers about my dilemma that I finally left. She threatened to give me a thorough ass kicking everyday until I moved. Damn good motivation." She laughed. A true, heartfelt laugh, not merely the bitter, cynical one that he'd heard up until now. And despite the way that she was wheezing almost as much as she was laughing or that it rattled slightly in her damaged throat, Naruto couldn't help but feel it was almost as beautiful as the sound of her flute.

Because for the first time in his life, somebody was truly laughing with him instead of at him.

Oh, sure, he got people to laugh at his jokes or his antics all the time, but it was always colored with thoughts of 'Oh, there's goes Naruto again. He just never grows up, does he?'. All of his friends still colored him by the same idiot facade he'd grown up with years ago. Forget the fact that he had defeated some of the most powerful ninjas in history or that, despite all the prejudice and hatred arranged against him, he was due to become Hokage in just a few years. It was always the same, 'He never grows up, does he?'.

And for the first time, it was beginning to piss him off.

As her laughter began to die down, he forced himself to push his irritation aside. There'd be another time for him to deal with his issues; for now he just wanted to enjoy this moment with Tayuya.

After a few more moments, her laugh died down to a few raspy chuckles. He grinned as he saw her wipe tears from her eyes, "Oh wow, that hurt," she said, rubbing her throat slightly. "But I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. Certainly not for years."

She shook her head slightly, still grinning, "Why am I not surprised at all?"

He scratched his head as he felt himself blush slightly. "What can I say? She's scary when she's mad..." He sighed inwardly. As much as he wanted to keep enjoying the strange camaraderie that had suddenly sprung up between them, he still wanted to get her to a hospital. "So did you come in here for anything particular or just to reminisce?"

At that she did blush. "I couldn't hear you wearing your coat. Figured you'd forgotten it..." she muttered, pointing to where it sat beside her.

"Shit! I can't believe I almost left that!" He picked it up and examined it real quickly before swinging it on. There were a few red stains left from the blood, but otherwise it looked like the clone had gotten it all out. "Good thing you remembered it. I would have been pissed if I'd left it here."

"It was the first thing I noticed about you," she muttered. "I could hear it flapping in the wind as you ran."

"And you got so jealous I had such an amazing coat and and you didn't that you decided to mug me for it." He grinned at her. "I see how it is."

She stood up and punched him in the side. "Don't be stupid, dumbass."

"Ow! You're always so violent!"

"And you're always so loud. Deal with it."

They walked out of the cabin arguing amiably before an idea suddenly struck Naruto. "Hey, you wanna burn the place?"

She turned and looked at him incredulously, "Did Mr. Goody-Fucking-Two Shoes just suggest we burn some jackass's property?"

"Oh, come on. I'll send him some money, say it was from an insurance company or something. Besides, the guy was a drunk. He probably wouldn't miss it anyways. Plus, I'm sure it's got to be symbolic for something. New beginnings or something."

"You just want to see something burn."

He grinned. "What can I say? You caught me."

She hesitated a moment longer, than shrugged. "Sure, why not? Have at it..."

"No way. You're the one who's lived here for four years. The honor should be yours."

Suddenly she turned away and he cursed inwardly as he felt her close herself off again. He sighed inwardly, apparently he'd said something yet again. He just could not figure out that woman for the life of him.

He walked over to her quietly and reached out to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder before thinking better of it. Touching her would probably only worsen her sudden mood swing. "Hey, Tayuya, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, let's just go."

He cocked an eyebrow at her but otherwise ignored her, waiting in silence for her to answer. She whirled on him and glared. "Stop being an asshole and let's fucking go already."

"Not until you tell me what's up?"

"What does it fucking matter? Let's go!"

"No, what's wrong? A moment ago you were all for burning the place down..."

She grabbed the lapel of his coat and yanked his face down, snarling. "Just drop it fucker and let's go!"

He stared at her consideringly for a moment before suddenly realizing that it wasn't that she didn't want to burn it down, but that she couldn't. He was so used to using chakra and jutsus for every little thing that he'd forgotten she'd gone four years without the ability or need to use her techniques. The way she was reacting, he highly suspected she could probably barely remember most of the ninjutsu she'd known.

He knew better than to actually ask her though, settling for wordlessly slipping a kunai and explosive tag out of his pouch and handing it to her. Even if she couldn't remember any of her jutsus, the look on her face showed she'd obviously not forgotten what the tag was for.

Her face screwed up hatefully as she flung the explosive weapon at the worn wooden structure. Perhaps the throw was a little too wobbly and probably didn't hit where she was aiming, but it stuck in the wall and blew up just the same. They stood together in silence as the flames consumed the cabin, before he crouched down and she climbed onto his back. Neither spoke as he set off towards Suna.

It was thirty minutes later that he finally heard a muttered, "You should have brought the litter."

--

They made good time for several hours before he started hearing Tayuya let out slight whimpers with each jump. She was hiding them well, her stubborn pride once again refusing to allow her to admit to any sort of weakness, but she hadn't counted on his inhuman hearing.

Since he knew she wasn't about to ask for one, he leapt down to the ground, giving her the chance to take a short break and give her leg some much need rest. The fact that she didn't tear into him right away for doing so was a pretty good sign she actually was in serious pain. Naruto gently let the redhead off his bank and she collapsed in the dirt with an audible, if quiet, sigh of relief.

He didn't bother to hide the concern on his face, considering she couldn't see it, but he did his best to keep it out of his voice as he asked, "How you holding up?"

Judging by her glare, he hadn't hidden it as well as he'd thought. "Never better!"

Despite not wanting to antagonize her, he couldn't stop himself from scoffing. "Yeah, and Orochimaru doesn't like little boys!"

He saw her lips twitch up at that. "So the dumb nut is capable of insulting somebody. I was beginning to wonder. You're the only person I've ever met who's too fucking nice for their own good. I hope you don't help all your enemies like this."

"Nope, only the verbally abusive ones."

He saw her lip twitch again, before she relented to his earlier question. "My leg does hurt a little. The way you're holding me puts pressure on the fucked up part." That admitted she stretched it out and began to massage the muscle.

Naruto sat down at the base of a tree across from her. "We'll take a break here." He pulled his canteen out of his bag and took a few sips out of it to moisten his then reached over to hand it to Tayuya, making sure to shake it slightly so she'd be able to 'see' it.

She realized right away what he was doing. "I don't need any fucking help," she snapped at him, swiping the bottle away angrily. "I can see it just fine, you pretentious jackass." Naruto sighed. Why did she have to make helping her so incredibly difficult?

Suddenly curiousity struck. "How far can you see anyways?"

"Out here? Unless I'm playing, I can only see maybe ten, fifteen feet, and the only real clear part is the first five feet. Because it's an open area it doesn't trap the sound as well as inside. Seeing as how I haven't been inside anything but that fucking cabin since I lost my eyesight, I've got no idea how far I could see in a building. I'm pretty sure there's few buildings with rooms too big for me to see the whole thing."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully but couldn't think of anything else to say. The two slipped into another one of their awkward silences. After a few minutes she rasped, "Tell me about something."

"Huh? Like, what?" he asked 's fine,

"Anything," she growled softly. "Just talk to me."

Then Naruto noticed the way her knuckles were whitening as she gripped her leg and realized she must have been in far more pain than he had thought. Seeing as it was his fault, the least he could do was try to take her mind off of it. He thought for a moment, "How about my first mission outside Konoha?"

"Perfect. Let me hear it," she growled.

Unsure of exactly where to start he finally just began from the very beginning with the Sandaime had assigned them the mission, "We had just graduated from the academy and I got saddled with Sasuke, a pink haired girl, and a lazy pervert of a teacher." Sasuke was safe seeing as how she already knew him but he wasn't about to name any more names than necessary. Even if he was helping her to full health, she was still technically an enemy ninja. It would be borderline treason to reveal the names of other Konoha shinobi to her.

"Wait, you were on a team with that arrogant little fudge-packer?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I was. I suppose you could say the two of us were rivals." He trailed off, reminiscing. "Even if we didn't get along most of the time, he was one of the few people to acknowledge me back then, which was why I tried my hardest to bring him back when..."

"When he gave you the big 'fuck off' and left to get diddled by Konoha's favorite pedophile?"

"Yeah," he said dryly. "That. Anyways, Sasuke and..."

She interrupted him. "The cocksucker."

"Huh?"

"I've decided I'm going to break you of this too fucking nice thing. Starting with that cum-guzzling little shithole. So from now on, anytime you talk about him you have to call the traitorous bastard 'the cocksucker'."

He snorted incredulously. "Or what?"

"Or I'm going to punch you in the ribs, that's what?"

Naruto found himself torn between the desire to defend his friend and the desire to just give in and make things easier on himself in the long run. It's wasn't as if anything she'd said wasn't true. Sasuke had made the choice to turn traitor all by his lonesome. Eventually he gave in. "I'll call him that if you don't bring up that damn litter again."

Her lip twitched at the reminder. "Deal."

"Then fine, I'll call lhim the cocksucker. Anyways, we got saddled doing boring D-class missions for a while before I finally got fed up and went to see the Third to demand something better."

She stopped him again. "Let me get this straight. You, a genin, went to the Hokage and _demanded_ that he give you better missions."

"Yeah."

"You've got to be shitting me. And you got away with it?"

"Yep," he replied with a small grin. "I suppose he always was a bit of a pushover."

She stared at him incredulously. "What kind of unit are you dumbasses running over there anyways. Genins pushing around the fucking Kage," she muttered to herself, but didn't say anything else so Naruto continued the story.

He told her all about their initial encounter with the demon brothers, though he left out the part where he froze up, and about his competition with 'the cocksucker'. About the first fight with Zabuza and how they decided to help the people of Wave Country anyways despite being lied to. He thought he heard her mutter something about 'too fucking nice' at that. About his tree walking training and the first meeting with Haku. And finally he gave her the edited version of their final battle against Haku and Zabuza. By the time he finished up, she had stopped massaging her leg and was listening to him intently.

When he finally finished the story he realized she'd relaxed up against the tree, the pain presumably having passed. "So what are we going to do now?"

"Get moving again," she rasped as if it were the most obvious thing in the book.

"But what about your leg hurting you?"

"It's fine! Let's go."

"And Orochimaru doesn't like little boys," he snapped back again, this time with a little lip twitch of his own. He took a moment to think. "If I'm remembering this correctly, there's a small village about three hours from here. We can stop there and get a few hours of rest. Plus, I'm sure you'd like a bath and some new clothes."

She blushed faintly. "Is it that bad?"

"You stink," he said bluntly. She picked up a rock from the ground and threw it at his head.

"You didn't have to put it that way," she snarled. Settling down she muttered, "Fine. How far will it be from there to Suna?"

"It depends on how fast we go. If we're going to crash in town, we might as well spend the rest of this night and tomorrow night there too. Give you some time to get some decent rest before we hit the city. So if we leave around two the day after tomorrow, we'll probably end up getting there right before the shops and everything start to close. It'll meaning running through the desert during the heat of the day but I want to be able to catch Gaara before he leaves his office."

She shrugged. "Works for me." Then she began getting up slowly, using the tree behind her as a crutch.

He stood up and moved in front of her, crouching down in front of her so she could hop on. "Make sure to let me know if it gets too painful, okay?"

She punched him in the ribs. "Dammit! That's the second time you've hit my ribs. You keep doing that and you're gonna break them! Then where are we going to be?"

"Then stop treating me like some fucking weakling!" she snarled. "I'm sick, not helpless."

"I'm not treating you like a weakling," he said sullenly as she jumped on. "I just don't want you to be in any more pain than you have too."

Silence greeted his statement, before she broke it with another muttered, "Too fucking nice."

Naruto couldn't help but grin. He probably was.

-----

Author's Notes:

I have something I absolutely have to get off my chest. My biggest Naruto fanfiction pet peeve is when people refer to 'Sannin' as a rank of ninja, similar to genin or jounin. _This is not the case!!! _Sannin is a _title_, not a rank, being given to Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru by the Ame's leader Hanzou during the Second Great War. The full title, not the bastardized version, being _Densetsu no Sannin_ (伝説の三忍), or the Three Ninja of Legend. A further look at the kanji only emphasizes this: 三 (san) meaning three and 忍 (in this context, nin) meaning ninja. Three Ninja. Not a rank. Not a skill level. _A title!_

I can't honestly give a reason for my irritation other than the fact that it's an incorrect usage. Perhaps it's hypocritical of me, after all I have no doubts that I'll likely scrrew up something similar sooner or later; foreign languages are an extremely tricky subject after all. But everytime I see a story where Naruto gains the rank of Sannin (or the like) I can't help but want to throw something through the screen at the author. After all, if Naruto's suddenly a Sannin than there's four of them, not three. Doesn't really work, does it?

My other pet peeves are the Sharingan in general and Sasuke in particular but we'll save those for another time.

-----

Published: 10.31.09

Updated: 12.30.09


	5. Chapter 4

**Blindsight**

Chapter 4

by Methinks

**-----**

The town was dead when they finally reached it, the brisk night breeze flowing through empty streets and whispering against shuttered windows. Naruto stopped on the road right outside the town and gently set Tayuya down; despite taking another break just an hour ago, she was already whimpering in pain from her leg. The redhead wobbled unsteadily on her one good leg for several moments before nearly falling over, grabbing onto him tightly to balance herself.

He turned around to look at her as she let go. She was terribly pale, the wavering lights of the street lamps doing little to soften the pallor of her face. Thick bags sagged underneath her eyes and little bits of dirt and leaves were smudged across her face and caught in her hair.

Naruto turned around completely to face her. "Hold still," he warned as he reached out to gently brush the dirt away with the pad of his thumb. She jerked slightly as she felt his fingers brush across her cheek but didn't move away.

Despite his original intentions, Naruto quickly lost himself in the feel of his fingers running across her face.

The blonde couldn't help but marvel at the feel of her skin underneath his hand, quickly forgetting his original intentions as he let his thumb skim lightly over her too visible cheekbones. He smiled softly as she turned slightly into his touch, allowing his large hand to cup itself over her cheek. He wasn't even sure she was aware she was doing it, her body so starved for human touch it was reacting on its own.

He knew because he'd been that way once as well. Still was to a certain degree.

Suddenly the harsh cry of a bird broke through the night's quiet, startling both of them. Naruto yanked his hand away, a fierce blush rising up on his face to match the one spreading across hers. Neither mentioned it.

Her face was just about as clean as it was going to get so he didn't bother trying to brush anything more off. She still looked terrible but there just wasn't much more he could do about it right now. He was just glad the streets were empty, he didn't want to have to parade her through town looking like she did now. She was already self-conscious enough as it was.

On second thought, maybe there was a little more he could do. He shrugged out of his coat and held it out for her. He might not be able to replace the rags she was wearing just now but at least he could cover them up. "Here."

She gave him a grunt of gratitude before taking it and wrapping it tightly around her shoulders, one arm hugging the over sized coat closed. "Can you walk on your own?"

She shot him a nasty glare. "Just get moving, jackass. I told you, I can fucking take care of myself."

Naruto shrugged and started walking slowly so she could keep up. Although he couldn't help but admire the woman's perseverance, he knew she was in no shape to be walking around by herself. Though he supposed that was rather hypocritical of him to criticize her for it – he strongly suspected this was how the Old Hag felt every time he got himself injured. He supposed being a horrid patient was another thing the two had in common.

They were only a few blocks away from an inn he'd stayed at before when Tayuya let out a loud whimper and grabbed tightly onto his arm, her bad leg giving out on her. The heat of her body pressing against his sent a slight thrill through him but it quickly disappeared as she turned to him and growled, "Not a fucking word."

Wisely, he kept silent, merely setting off again towards the inn. It was immediately obvious which building it was, being the only place on the street with the windows lit up, and Naruto made a beeline towards it. He pushed open the front door to the soft sound of a wind chime, causing the man behind the front desk to look up in pleased surprisem though the blonde noticed a flicker of concern behind the man's eyes at the sight of the crippled redhead. "Ah, Uzumaki-san, good morning. It's good to see you again."

Naruto grinned amiably at the man. "I'm glad to be back Hoji-san. I don't suppose you've got any rooms open?"

"We will always have a room open for you, Uzumaki-san. It's the least we can do after how much you've helped us. May I assume you're not here for pleasure?"

"Unfortunately. We just need a place to crash for the next two nights. Have to pick some things up before heading on to Suna."

"Are you going to want one room or two?"

Naruto hesitated until he felt Tayuya's distressed grip tighten painfully on his arm. "Just one." He thought he heard her sigh in relief as her grip loosened again.

The man reached around underneath his desk before pulling out a key and tossing it to the blond. "You'll be in room 203 this time. Shall I charge it to Konoha like usual?"

"Nah," Naruto said as he fished out his wallet. He smiled fondly as he held the worn frog in his hand, even after all these years he was still using his beloved Gama-chan. "This one's on me."

He stayed at this place enough times to easily remember how much it'd cost to stay, so he fished out a few bills and dropped them on the counter as he passed. "That should cover both nights Hoji-san. Now, if you don't mind I'm going to take a much needed shower than crash in bed." He turned and led Tayuya up the stairs and down the hallway to their room.

The innkeeper chuckled after them. "Very well, Uzumaki-san. Enjoy your stay."

Tayuya braced herself against the wall of the hallway as Naruto opened the door in front of them. The moment he held it open for her, she limped over to the queen sized bed and sat down with a drawn out sigh of relief. The blond shut and locked the door behind them before pointing at the sole other door in the room. "That door there's the bathroom. They only have showers but there's more than enough hot water to do the trick. Everything should already be in there, soap and shampoo and what not."

Despite her fatigue, an obvious look of excitement crossed her face at the prospect of an actual shower. She limped over to the door before growling over her shoulder, "If I so much as fucking think you're peaking, I'm gonna shove your balls so far up your ass that they'll come out of your fucking mouth!" With that she steeped inside and slammed the door shut, the unmistakable click of a lock following behind it.

Naruto chuckled and shouted through the thin wood, "Don't worry. I wouldn't dream of it. I'm just gonna put some of my clothes outside the door so you don't have to sleep in those dirty ones." She didn't answer but he was sure she'd heard him. He pulled out a scroll and unsealed one of his plain black t-shirts and the orange sweatpants he usually wore to sleep. They'd be huge on her but they were clean and more importantly completely intact. He went ahead and dropped the bottle of cough medicine on the pile of clothes as well. "And don't forget to take your medicine."

Her heard the water start up in the bathroom as he walked away from the door. He pulled off his shirt and pants and tossed them into the far corner of the room. That done, he unsealed his bed roll from his scroll. Tayuya more than deserved the bed. He'd just crash on the floor then take a shower in the morning after he'd woke up.

He quickly slipped into a light doze but was broken out of it when he heard the water shut off in the bathroom. He didn't move, being careful to regulate his breathing so she'd think he was still asleep. He wasn't going to let himself drop back off, however, until he heard her crawl safely into that bed.

Slowly the door to the bathroom squeaked open and Naruto heard the rustle of cloth as Tayuya pulled his pajamas inside. She closed the door behind her, then opened it again a few minutes later, presumably after she'd gotten dressed. He listened carefully as she liimped her way across the hotel room floor, the creaking of the bed springs underneath her weight announcing her safe arrival.

Naruto smiled. Satisfied she'd be alright for the night, he focused on going back to sleep. A harder achievement than he was expecting. He lay there quietly for several minutes, trying to grasp that elusive slumber, before Tayuya broke the silence. "I can hear you're still awake, you know."

He contemplated ignoring her for a few moments before sighing. "Go to sleep, Tayuya. We can talk in the morning."

"And if I want to talk now?"

He sighed again. "Then tough. You've had a long, hard day today and you need to get as much rest as you can. We'll have all of tomorrow to talk if you want."

She huffed at him. "Who made you the boss around here?"

"I did. Now go to sleep." She didn't respond.

After a couple minutes of silence, he figured she'd finally listened to him and settled back down into his sleeping bag. It seemed like he'd barely closed his eyes when she spoke up again, her voice uncharacteristicly soft. "I can't sleep," she choked out. "I just can't. I can hear the people in the other rooms and I can't stop worrying about them."

He sat up in his sleeping bag. "And what do you want me to do about it?"

"I don't know..." She trailed off. He sighed. He didn't doubt her pride had taken a major blow just saying that much. He highly doubted she'd allow herself to actually ask for anything specific to help.

He untangled himself from his sleeping bed and got up, walking over and sitting on top of the covers of the unoccupied side of the bed. She didn't react very well to that. "The fuck you think you're doing, dumbass?! Who said you could sleep with me?"

"I'm not. I'm on top of the covers. I'm just going to sit here until you fall asleep and then I'm going back to my sleeping bag. Alright? Just so you know you don't have to worry about everyone else. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

She rolled over to face away from him. "Who said I wanted you to sit with me?"

A smile spread across his face but he didn't answer her. She was just grumbling to save face by this point and they both knew it.

The two of them sat in quiet for a while, Naruto listening to the soft sound of Tayuya breathing to pass the time. A small bit of moonlight streamed in through a crack in the window curtains, giving him just enough to make out the outline of her laying on the bed. He studied the profile of her face carefully, committing each detail to memory. He wanted to be able to clearly remember this whole adventure for when he went home. His vacation wasn't turning out at all like he'd expected but he couldn't honestly say he regretted that. It was just in his nature to enjoy himself most when helping others.

And gods knew, she needed help.

After a while, she turned back to face him. "I still can't sleep."

Naruto sighed and let his head thump back against the headboard. "Really? There's not much else I can do. Unless... I suppose I could always..." He trailed off, a blush spreading across his face as he thought about what he was about to do. It took a few seconds to force down his pride and embarrassment before he began to softly hum.

He could almost hear the corresponding blush in her voice. "What do you think you're doing?"

He could feel the embarrassment coming back up. "Quiet. Just lay down and go to sleep." He couldn't help but feel relieved when she didn't say anything else. He didn't think his pride would allow him to keep doing this if she pressed the issue.

Fortunately she didn't. After a few minutes the embarrassment began to fade and he lost himself in the simple melody. He vaguely remembered Shizune humming it to him one night at the hospital. He'd just gotten back from an A turned S-rank gone wrong where he got himself injured rescuing the other members of his team. He smiled softly, humming just a little bit louder. To this day, her sitting in a chair beside his hospital bed, holding his hand and humming that melody was one of his fondest memories of his adopted sister.

After a while, he began to feel an odd sense of contentment as he watched over her. Normally, his helping other people involved putting himself in the bad guy's path with a Rasengan in each hand. He'd never been in a position to care for someone quite the way he was doing now. If this was how doctors felt, he could see why Tsunade and Shizune loved their profession so much. This intimate form of caring was just as enjoyable, if not more so, than the violent path he usually took.

Finally her breathing evened out and she slipped into sleep. He hummed to her for a few more minutes just to make sure before quietly slipping off the bed. He walked back over to his sleeping bag and crawled back inside. And as he settled down to sleep himself, he couldn't help whispering softly, "Good night, Tayuya. Sweet dreams."

-----

When he woke up, the sun had risen high in the sky. Tayuya was still sleeping soundly on the bed, so he took extra care to be quiet as he stood up and stretched. He unsealed a black t-shirt and some loose black pants for him to wear before making his way towards the bathroom for his own shower.

He couldn't resist the sigh of pleasure that escaped him as the hot water started cascading down his back. Except for a short swim in the lake outside Tayuya's cabin, he hadn't had a chance to bathe in three days, ever since he'd first run into her.

Suddenly he realized just what Tayuya's super human hearing meant in situations like these. No doubt with all the noise the shower was making, echoing around in the confined space of the bathroom, she'd have a clear view of his goods and all that entailed. He blushed and double-timed it out of the shower. No matter how proud of his package he was, he didn't need Tayuya catching a 'glimpse' and making things even more awkward between the two of them. They had enough problems already without tossing extra embarrassment into the mix.

Fortunately, when he stepped back out into the room, the redhead was still asleep. He took a moment to examine her now that he had enough light to see by. He was rather pleased to note that he'd been right about his earlier assessment, she did clean up fairly nicely. As soon as she got rid of that sickly pallor and whipped herself back up into shape, she'd be more than a match for any woman in Konoha. Granted, the thin white scars decorating her body might be off-putting to most civilians, but they were hardly going to bother him. Scars like that were part and parcel of any shinobi's life.

Probably even more so for someone trained by Orochimaru himself.

Even more striking than the rest of her was her hair. The sight of it, spread out across her pillow, still slightly damp from her shower the night before, only reaffirmed his belief in the superiority of red hair. True, it was still uneven and messily cut, the strands rather dull and coarse. But just like the rest of her, it had the potential to become astonishingly beautiful with a little bit of attention and care.

Unfortunately, he had errands still to run today. He dragged his eyes away from her and turned and dug through his dirty clothes in the corner for his wallet and the room key. He shoved those in one of the pants' two pockets and slipped a pouch of kunai in the other. He didn't bother putting on the hitiate – he didn't want to bother being a shinobi today. This was his and Tayuya's day of rest, he just wanted to be treated like any other traveler passing through.

He stepped out of the room and locked the door behind him. He might as well make good use of his free time while she slept. Once he made it downstairs, he headed over to the front desk. The innkeeper from earlier was still behind it. "Oh, Hoji-san. You're still awake?"

The man smiled amiably. "Unfortunately, Uzumaki-san. As they say, business waits for no man. What can I help you with? Is there a problem with the room?"

Naruto waved a hand dismissively. "Not at all. The room's perfect. I just need a little help pointing myself in the right direction."

"Oh? Well, in that case, I'm at your service. What are you looking for?"

"Clothes and a crutch. Both for the lady up there."

The innkeeper stopped and thought for a second. "You can get any clothes you need right down the street there." He pointed through the front window at a small store. "The crutch is a little trickier. The town doctor's the only one who has any but I know his entire medical stock's been running a little low. I'm not sure if he currently has any to spare."

Naruto pulled out Gama-chan. "I'd be more than willing to pay whatever the Doctor wants. Within reason, of course."

The innkeeper smiled. "Of course." Then he turned to an open door behind the desk and shouted, "Aramaki! Get in here!"

Naruto heard a faint response echo from within. After a few seconds, a young boy, perhaps nine or ten years old, ran out the door and over to Hoji. "What'd you need, dad?"

"I need you to go see Dr. Hatarou and ask him for a crutch for someone about... 1.7 meters or so?" He looked at the blonde for confirmation.

"I think that's about right." Naruto fished some more money out of Gama Chan and handed it to the boy as he ran off. "Here, this should be enough to pay for it. Feel free to keep the change. My thanks for helping."

The blonde turned back to the innkeeper. "Thanks a lot, Hoji-san. You've been a great help."

The man waved his hand dismissively. "You just make sure to take care of that lady friend of yours. She looked pretty beat up."

Naruto snorted. "You've got no idea. I'll be back soon." He waved bye to the good-natured innkeeper as he turned and walked out the front door.

It took only a few seconds to make the walk over to the clothing store Hoji had pointed out. A bell tinkled from the doorframe as he entered, the sound causing a young woman sitting behind the cash register to look up from her magazine. She smiled amiably at him. "Welcome to Yuki's Clothes Emporium. Is there anything I can help you with today?"

Naruto shook his head and smiled. "No thank you. I should be fine."

"Alright then. Just let me know if you do need anything." She went back to her magazine.

Naruto spent the next several minutes wandering lost through rack after rack of clothing. He'd never had to pick out clothes for a girl before. In fact, it was usually the other way around. For some reason, the women back home didn't seem to trust him to shop for himself and took great pleasure dragging him from store to store like a living mannequin and then making him pay for it all. That last shopping spree with Ino still gave him nightmares.

Finally, after having browsed for at least ten minutes without getting anywhere, he trudged back over to the cash register. "Excuse me? It looks like I could use some help after all."

She gave him a grin and a wink. "Then you came to the right place. Let's see what we can do for you. What exactly are you looking for?"

"I'm traveling with a lady friend of mine and unfortunately her luggage fell off our cart and got swept away by a river. I need to buy her something to replace it."

"So I'm going to guess you need a little bit of everything."

Naruto smiled. "Sounds about right."

"Alright then. " She set off through the aisles, purposefully navigating her way through the racks of clothing. "First I need to know what colors she likes to wear?"

"Uh..."

She didn't even wait for him to try and continue. "You didn't even think to ask, did you?" He opened his mouth to protest that, regardless of how true it was, but she continued on, ignoring him. "Men! I swear they're all the same. All brawn and no brain!"

She suddenly swiveled around on her heel, surprising Naruto as she turned to face him. "What does she look like?"

"Uh..."

She sighed. "Height." She barked.

"About to here." He raised his hand up to his nose.

"Skin color."

"Uh... pale?" Another disparaging comment about men.

"Hair color."

"Red."

"Is she skinnier or larger than I am?"

"Skinnier." Naruto suspected they'd be about the same once her health improved. However they were only fitting her for the moment.

"Are her boobs bigger or smaller than mine?" She used both hands to plum them up with a shameless grin. It took all of Naruto's not inconsiderable self-control to prevent himself from pulling a Jiraiya and start staring. She had a truly magnificent pair and he was still a red-blooded male after all.

As it was, he settled for turning away and blushing. "About the same."

"Okay, then..." She turned back around and began tearing through the racks, pulling out random items here and there and tossing them back into his arms. He was a little alarmed at the rate the clothes were piling up at. He was beginning to worry he wouldn't have enough money on him to purchase all of that.

Suddenly, she stopped and turned around. "Are you going to want some shoes too?"

Naruto blushed, feeling mildly ashamed as he realized he hadn't even thought of that. "Yeah. Shoes too."

"I won't even ask if you know her shoe size." The woman sniffed disdainfully at him. "I'm just going to assume her feet are about my size too." She dragged him over to a rack of shoes at the back of the store. "I'll just give you a pair of sandals. That way if they don't fit at least they won't hurt her feet as badly." Those went on top of the pile as well.

As she turned back around to head to the cash register, a small shelf of hats caught Naruto's eyes. He stopped to find one for Tayuya. The small brim on the baseball caps wouldn't do much but it would help keep the desert sun off her face. Unlike him, she still had to worry about sunburns even if she didn't have to worry about the glare.

Finally he found one that he liked. It was a simple baseball hat, just a faded green, but what really caught his eye was the Konoha logo stitched in crimson on the front. Judging by the way all the other hats were arranged in front of it, he figured it had been there for quite a while now. Though it made sense that nobody wanted Konoha merchandise this close to Suna.

The idea of making the ex-Sound kunoichi wear a Konoha hat put a large grin on his face. He turned back to the lady, who had stopped when she realized he wasn't following her and now was waiting for him to finish up. "Do you mind grabbing that hat for me?" He smiled as he held up the big pile of clothes in his arms. "My hands are a little pre-occupied at the moment.

She walked back over and reached up onto the shelf. "Which one? The Konoha one?"

"Yeah."

She pushed the other hats aside and grabbed it. "No problem. I've been trying to get rid of this thing for a while. I'll tell you what, you give my compliments to your lady friend and I'll throw this in for free."

He smiled brightly at her as they walked back to the register. "You've got yourself a deal."

He dumped the clothes on the counter in front of her and she began to ring them up with practiced ease. "Now, I've got a couple different sizes in here since I didn't know exactly what to get." She glared admonishingly at the blonde. "Just have her try everything on and you can bring anything that doesn't fit."

He nodded. "Works for me."

She folded everything up as soon as she was done and put it in bags for him to carry. While she was doing that, he opened up Gama-chan and pulled out several large bills to pay for everything. He handed those to her then picked up the bags. As he opened the door, he turned back around to look at her one last time before leaving. "Thanks again for your help. I really appreciated it."

She'd already gone back to her magazine.

Naruto shrugged as he walked swiftly back to the hotel. Looking at the sun, he was surprised to find it'd traveled farther than he would've thought. His impromptu little spree most certainly took longer than he'd originally planned. Then again, he supposed he should have guessed as much. Shopping always took longer when it had to deal with women.

The wind chimes tinkled merrily as he pushed open the door to the inn. He was pleased to see a metal crutch leaning up against the wall behind the front desk as he walked inside. Hojo gave him a smile from behind the counter. "Ah, Uzumaki-san. Just in time. Aramaki just got back with your crutch." He motioned to the pre-teen standing at his side.

Naruto smiled at the kid. "Did he now? Then I suppose I should probably say thank you for getting it for me."

The kid smiled back shyly. "You're very welcome, sir. Thank you for the change."

"You earned it." Hojo handed him the crutch from across the counter. It took Naruto a little bit of juggling but he eventually managed to grab it without dropping any of the many clothes bags he was carrying. "Thanks again, you two."

Naruto heard the innkeeper say something from behind him as he went up the stairs but the crinkling of the bags drowned it out. He dropped a handful of the them in front of the door in order to pull the key out of his pocket and unlock it. He froze before he could do anything more than crack the door as he realized he should probably knock first. He didn't want to accidentally walk in on Tayuya naked or something and wind up with his balls in places they should never venture.

When she didn't answer, he felt safe enough to quietly make his way inside. He was somewhat amused to find she was still passed out underneath the sheets. For someone who had such a difficult time going to sleep last night, she was sleeping surprisingly well. He went ahead and just propped up the crutch in one corner and put the bags of clothes down around it.

Since she was still sleeping, he saw no reason why he couldn't go ahead and take a nap of his own. He stripped off his shirt and climbed back in his sleeping bag, dropping off much quicker than he had the night before.

----

A sharp pain in his side woke him up a few hours later. His eyes shot open to see a glaring Tayuya standing over him, her foot withdrawing after kicking him. Grimacing, he sat up and scowled at the redhead. "What the hell do you have against my ribs? Keep this up and we'll both be stuck here."

She smirked at him. "You wouldn't wake up. What else was I supposed to do?"

His scowl deepened. "Yeah, I'm sure you tried real hard too." He stood up and stretched. "Well, now I'm up. What do you want?"

She pointed over at the bed where all the clothes he'd purchased earlier were laying in neat little piles. Apparently she'd been up for a while. He must have really been out of it to have slept right through that.

"Those piles up by the head board don't fit. You need to take them back."

"Fine, we can do that later. I don't see why that was important enough to kick me in the ribs for."

She scowled, fists clenching at her side. "I want to get dressed. But I can't see what these colors are."

He felt a sudden rush of sympathy for her. It had to be agonizing to go from a life of self-reliance to being suddenly dependent on other people to help her with even the simplest of daily tasks. Though the sympathy went straight out the door moments later when she punched him hard in the ribs. She snarled at him, "I don't want your fucking pity!"

"What the hell? I didn't say a damn thing!"

"No, but you were thinking it." Her fist shook as she pointed a finger at him. "You're entire stance changed the moment I fucking said that. Don't you for a fucking second even think I need your pity! Just tell me what these god damn colors are so I can get out of your shitty clothes."

He forced himself to bite back the words on his tongue. He didn't want to say anything he was going to regret later. He'd just sit back and let this little temper tantrum of hers pass on its own. He was quickly finding that usually worked best. Though giving in to her demands would certainly hasten it.

He took a look at the clothes she'd picked out. There were two shirts, a tank top, a pair of loose sweatpants, and a pair of biking shorts. Thankfully none of the lingerie was in the pile, he was going to assume everything she'd picked out fit fine. Either that or – well, he didn't need to be thinking about the alternative right now. He wasn't Jiraiya after all.

"The shirt on the top left is purple and the one next to it is white. The top is some sort of bluish-green. The sweats are tan with a black stripe and the shorts are black."

She stood there in silence looking at the clothes for a while. Naruto didn't say anything either, he didn't want to spark off her already volatile temper by accident. Suddenly, she pointed a finger at the bathroom door. "You! In there!"

"What? Why do I have to go in there?"

"Because your legs fucking work, asshole. Now scram."

Naruto grumbled the entire way there but followed her directives. As he shut the door behind him he heard her yell, "And don't peek."

"Yeah, yeah," he shouted back. "Balls coming out my mouth and everything. I got it already."

A few minutes later he heard the shout saying he could come back in. He found himself eying her speculatively as he stepped out the door. She'd chosen the purple shirt and the tan pants. It looked nice on her, though they both hung rather loose on her frame. Consider how anxious she currently looked, he suspected that was probably why she'd picked them to begin with. She was obviously self-conscious about her looks.

"What? Got a fucking problem with what I'm wearing?" Apparently he wasn't doing said self-conscious any favors with his staring.

"Good choice. You look good in them." He smiled as she blushed, her anger stopping in its tracks. It was rather cute the way she had no idea how to deal with compliments. Though his mood soured somewhat as he realized it was probably because she'd gotten precious few of them in her lifetime. He highly doubted Orochimaru was a terribly complimentary person and there'd been no one to give them to her at the cabin.

Suddenly he was struck with an idea. "Come on, let's go celebrate your new look with some dinner. I know this tiny little ramen stand here, it'll be perfect. It's out of the way so there will only be a few people there, especially considering it's still a little early for dinner. It'll be the perfect place for your grand entrance back into society."

She wasn't expecting that. "Wait, what?"

"I said let's celebrate!" He grabbed the crutch from its spot against the wall and handed it to her before grabbing her free hand and dragging her out the door with him. "Come on, it'll be fun. I promise."

He continued pulling the obviously reluctant Tayuya out of the inn and down the street towards the stand, neither commenting as her hand stayed firmly in his the entire way there.

-----

Author's Note:

There is a tree right outside the window of my fourth story apartment bedroom in which lives a bird. I don't know what kind of bird. Indeed, I've never actually even seen the damn thing. But I know it's there. I know because every morning around 4:45 the stupid bastard starts screeching. Not singing. Not cawing. Screeching. I only wish it had been convenient to allow Naruto to kill his little nightmare – wouldn't do anything to mine but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?

-----

Published: 11.06.09


	6. Chapter 5

**Blindsight**

Chapter 5

by Methinks

**-----**

It wasn't really all that far from the inn to the ramen stand he was thinking off, but Tayuya's inexperience with her crutch drew it out to nearly a half-hour. Not that Naruto particularly minded, he was inexplicably content just being able to hold her hand as she limped her way there.

Just in case she fell, of course. It didn't mean anything more than that.

When he finally sighted the small restaurant, he couldn't help but pull her along a little faster. "Come on, Tayuya. We're almost there!"

The sudden pull made her stumble. With a scowl, she yanked him back by his hand. "Slow down, asshole! I'm already moving as fast as I can. Your damn ramen can wait."

He turned towards her and began to pout. "But Tayuya... I haven't had any ramen in almost a week!"

"Tough. You can wait another thirty seconds."

Naruto grinned cheekily at her and kept on complaining, counting down the seconds until she snapped and hit him with her crutch. When they made it to the restaurant without her smacking him, Naruto began to feel a little concerned. Was she feeling weaker than usual? Perhaps her sickness was advancing more quickly with all the activity?

Or perhaps – he thought wryly as they sat down at the counter and she stabbed him in the side with the chopsticks waiting there – she was just biding her time till he dropped his guard...

Rubbing his side, he turned to the chef, a man who looked remarkably like Old Man Ichiraku back home. "Oh, Chef-san! Can I get two beef ramen bowls, please. What do you want Tayuya?"

"I'll have a beef ramen too." Her voice was quiet, just above a whisper, and ridiculously submissive. Naruto couldn't help but worry, this was not at all like the loud, brash Tayuya he'd come to suspect. He looked over at her with concern, frowning when he saw her sitting huddled in on herself.

He scooted his stool over to her, sitting close enough they were almost touching. Knowing she wouldn't want her weakness aired to the room, he whispered just loud enough to hear, "Tayuya? What's wrong?"

"There's too many people. I can't keep track of them all. What if somebody sees me and I don't notice them coming and they kill me and I can't see the ramen so I can't eat it and..."

She began to hyperventilate until the stress on her lungs sent her into a coughing fit. Naruto stood up, wrapping an arm around her to steady her through it. The chef looked at him in concern, no doubt worried what having a sick woman in his restaurant would do for business. "Don't worry, sir. She's not contagious. She's got a lung injury. We're actually on our way to Suna to see the doctor's there for surgery."

The man seemed skeptical but didn't throw them out. Naruto looked at him again, "We'll be right back for the ramen. I'm just going to take her around the corner there to wait out the attack."

The chef nodded. "Alright. I'll keep your food on the heat until you get back."

Naruto pulled the redhead to her feet and gently guided her out of the stand. He noticed an alley right to the side of the building and pulled her in there, moving back until they were barely visible from the street.

Naruto held her for another minute, gently rubbing her back while the attack faded. When she finally stopped coughing, he pushed her away, holding her at arm's length. "What the hell was that, Tayuya?"

She blushed and looked away but didn't say anything. Naruto winced. Perhaps that was a little too blunt. Knowing her, she was already disgusted enough with herself. He didn't need to be making things worse.

"Tayuya, look at me." She didn't move, so he cupped her chin in one hand and gently forced her to. "Don't forget I'm right here with you. I told you I'm not going to let anything happen to you and I meant it. There's absolutely nothing to worry about."

He was suddenly struck by how small she looked. "I know... but..."

Naruto hushed her. "How about this? We'll give it one more shot. I'll be right there beside you the entire time. And if you still can't do it, we'll just get the ramen to go and head back to the hotel. But you're going to have to start getting used to people again sometimes soon."

She nodded after a few moments, straightening up with a determined expression on her face. "Alright."

Together, the two of them walked back into the stand, going back to the same seats they'd had before. Naruto slid his stool even closer to hers, getting close enough for their arms and legs to touch. True to his word, the chef had kept the ramen warm and Naruto gave him a thankful grin as he slid the bowls across the counter to him.

Despite wanting to tear right into the ramen, Naruto was determined to wait for Tayuya to start eating before he even touched his. The redhead was staring in the general direction of her bowl but didn't seem interested in eating it anytime soon. He nudged her leg with his. "Tayuya? You going to eat?"

She grunted and picked up her chopsticks. Her hold was a little awkward at first, fingers unused to the movements after so many years, and her inability to see past the surface of the ramen made finding and picking up noodles somewhat difficult, but the redhead soldiered on. Naruto couldn't help but grin proudly, as if it was his accomplishment. Tayuya seemed to sense this and elbowed him in his side. "Stop watching me and eat your own food, jackass."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her and turned to his own food. He sighed happily as the delicious noodles met his taste buds. Conversation was limited as the two absorbed themselves in their food, Tayuya drawing strength from his presence and Naruto more than happy to give it to her.

-----

The sun had set by the time they made it back to their room, so Naruto wasted little time in ushering Tayuya off to the bathroom so she could shower off and go to bed. It was obvious all this activity was wearing hard on her. Her cough had been getting progressively worse throughout dinner and she'd seemed like she'd barely had the energy to make it the short distance back to the hotel. He didn't want to have gone to all this effort just to have her keel over before getting to the operating table because he'd pushed her too hard.

It was with some trepidation, as Tayuya climbed underneath the covers, that Naruto sat down on the other side of the bed like he'd done the night before and began to hum. She didn't say anything but Naruto was sure he'd seen a small smile before she'd turned away.

He was almost sorry it didn't take her long to fall asleep but quit anyways when he heard her breathing even out. With a sigh, he got up quietly and went to bed himself. His internal clock would have him up well before her, so he'd have plenty of time to shower off before she woke.

Sure enough, he was up around five the next day. As he stepped out of the shower and dried off, he conteplated what exactly they were going to do with the day ahead. He knew he'd originally told Tayuya they'd leave around two in the afternoon but her weakness last night had made him reconsider that idea. He wanted to get her to Suna as soon as possible now, which meant leaving a great deal earlier.

Having made up his mind, he created a Shadow Clone and sent it off for breakfast the moment he was finished dressing, There was a dango place about ten minutes away from the hotel that would be opening about the time his clone got there. It'd bring it back to the hotel, he'd wake up Tayuya, then they could eat and leave.

Then his eyes fell on the pile of bags stacked in the corner. Damn. He'd forgotten all about returning the clothes. He supposed he could just leave a clone behind to return them and then mail himself the money but that seemed a little too troublesome. He sighed. He'd just wait to leave until the store opened and return them himself. Tayuya could probably use the extra sleep anyways.

The clone made it back in another half hour as the sun began to peek over the horizon. He went ahead and ate his dango, no sense sitting around hungry for another hour, then covered Tayuya's portion so it wouldn't get too cold. He'd wake her up in another hour to eat and get ready so they could get right to the store when it opened at eight.

With lack of anything better to do, he spent the next hour in a light meditative trance. Jiraiya had made a point to drill the need for regular meditation into him during his trip, as much as his over-abundance of energy was useful during fights, a good ninja it did not otherwise make. Hence the need for meditation.

Once he'd estimated it was time, he woke himself out of his trance and went to wake Tayuya up. He shook her lightly. "Rise and shine, Sleepyhead."

She grunted something out and turned away from him. Naruto tried again. "Come on, Tayuya. Time to get up. We need to get moving."

This time she was a little more audible. "Fuck off, asshole. I'm still sleeping."

"I'll get ice."

"You wouldn't fucking dare."

Naruto grinned. "You're right. Too much trouble." He formed a few handseals. "I'd do this instead." A light stream of cold water came bursting out of the air to drench her.

Tayuya shot up out of the bed faster than he'd thought possible. He was silenced before he could tell her so by the look on her face. In all the fights he'd ever been in, he didn't think he'd ever seen his death spelled out so clearly by an opponent. Perhaps, that hadn't been quite a good deal after all.

A thorough beating later found Naruto lying in a heap by a wall, twitching, while Tayuya savored her dango. It didn't take her long to eat it and get ready, Naruto having recovered by the time she was finished.

Together the two canvased the place for any last minute items Naruto had missed on his first run through. A good thing they had too, as Tayuya would have killed him if he'd left her flute behind the nightstand where it had rolled off. As it was, she only gave him a hateful glare when he held it up from its hiding spot. Like it was his fault gravity existed.

Cautiously, he handed it over to her. "Here you go, Tayuya. You might as well hang on to this. Might help settle you down when we get to Suna."

She scowled at him and snatched it away. "I don't need any help settling down, jackass. Just shut up and get a move on with things."

"Fine, fine." Satisfied the room was clean, he moved over to the bags of clothes. He noticed the hat he had purchased was shoved down inside one of them. He pulled it back out. "You don't want the hat? I guarantee you'll appreciate it once we get into the desert. Without any shade, that sun will bake your skin faster than any katon jutsu could."

She looked like she was struggling against saying yes, so he went ahead and tossed it over to her. Her hands shot out awkwardly to catch it but she managed as he told her brightly, "Plus, that's gotta be the coolest looking hat I've ever seen. It'll look perfect on you."

She scowled but went and and tried it on. It was too loose so she adjusted the band on the back before putting it back on. "Hurry up. I want to get this fucking thing over with."

Satisfied, he shouldered the bags and went to hold the door open for her. She grabbed her crutch and limped over to the door, allowing Naruto to shut and lock it behind her. After they struggled their way downstairs, Naruto walked back over to the desk and dropped the keys on it, getting Mr. Hojo's attenting. "Ah, leaving already Uzumaki-san?"

"I'm afraid so. I'll try to come back soon."

"You do that. And it was good seeing you too, miss." He said turning a smile on Tayuya, causing her to uncomfortably shift a bit close to Naruto as she made some sort of grunting noise. The lack of reception caused his grin to fall slightly but he just shrugged when Naruto gave him an apologetic smile. "Have a nice journey, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto chuckled slightly as he held the door open for Tayuya, "I'll try, but I'm not going to make any promises. Your desert hates me." With that he waved good-bye.

Touching her lightly on the shoulder, he nodded in the direction of the clothes store. "Let's return these real quick and then we can get off."

Silently, she followed him over there. Opening the door, he smiled widely at the lady as she looked up. "Hi, again."

Seeing him, she grinned. "The clothes work out okay?"

"You can see for yourself," he said, then realized that Tayuya had stopped outside the shop. He looked over at her and she started shaking her head, looking slightly panicked. He noticed her knuckles whitening around her flute.

He sighed. And he'd thought they'd made progress last night during dinner. "Come on. I'm right here with you. Besides, it's the last air-conditioning you'll have for several hours." When she still didn't move, he grabbed her arm gently and pulled her through the door.

The saleslady, picking up on the mood, toned herself down somewhat. Giving Tayuya a once-over, she nodded satisfied. "A little big, but they still look good on you."

She blushed and dropped her head so the brim of her hat would cover it up. Naruto, noticing her pleased embarassment, chimed in brightly, "They really do, don't they?" The look she shot him promised pain later on but didn't quite disguise the pleased look in her eyes. She was remarkably expressive for a blind person. "Anyways, we'd like to return this stuff."

Taking the bag from him, the cashier dumped the clothes on the counter and started ringing them in. Opening the cash register, she gave him back his money. "You two take care of yourselves now. And make sure to watch over this blonde idiot." The woman pointed to Naruto. "He looks like the type to get himself into trouble." Tayuya nodded and give a bit of a smirk, but she still said nothing.

He sighed then broke the awkward silence. "We'll try." He opened the door for Tayuya as he waved good-bye. "Take care."

The cashier ignored him. When he looked, she'd already gone back to her magazine.

As they began walking out of town so they could get underway, he turned towards Tayuya with a grin. "We really need to work on your people skills."

She smacked him with her crutch.

When they were far enough away from town, he stopped and let her hop up on his back. It took almost a minute of adjusting before she was finally comfortable enough to set off but Naruto suspected she was mostly just trying to stall the pain she knew her leg would be causing. He frowned inwardly. He really wished she didn't have to deal with that. Though on the bright side, after today, her leg would never bother her again.

Well, at least because of _that_ injury.

They made good time into the desert but the heat from the rising sun was beginning to get oppresive. It was at times like this that Naruto appreciated his wind affinity the most. He concentrated on the air surrounding him and Tayuya and started it circling across their skins.

Tayuya started in surprise when she felt the cool air begin to move around her, nearly causing Naruto to stumble. She spoke for the first time since they'd set off. "The fuck is that?"

He grinned. "Air conditioning. I'm my own personal air conditioning unit."

She smacked his arm. "I figured that, jackass. How are you doing it?"

"I'm a wind affinity. All I do is force the air around me to circulate across my skin like a fan. It takes a crap ton of chakra to do for any real amount of time. Not to mention ridiculously good control too. Better control than mine, for sure. It it weren't for who strong my affinity is, I doubt I'd be able to pull it off at all."

She didn't say anything after that and the two settled into an awkward silence which lasted for several minutes before Naruto got too uncomfortable and broke it. "You've been awfully quiet all this time. What've you been thinking about?"

She was quiet for a moment. "Nothing really... It's just..." She paused, trying to figure out what to say next. "I didn't know you were a blonde."

"Huh? What's my hair color have to do with anything?"

She smacked him. "If you'd let me finish, you'd find out. Jackass."

She fell silent for a few more seconds before continuing softly like before. "It's not your hair color that's bothering me... though I should have guessed you were blonde. No, it's just that... if the lady at the store had never said anything, I never would've known you were a blonde. You're doing so much to help me and I barely even know you. Other than your hair color and the fact that you're too fucking nice."

Naruto was quiet for a moment in surprise. Of all the things he'd expected to be bugging her, not knowing him well enough wasn't one of them. "So let's fix that!"

"Huh?"

He grinned. "You just said you wanted to get to know me better, so let's do something about that. Come on, ask me something."

"Ask you what?"

"I don't know. Anything. What exactly do you want to know?"

"Seriously? You'd just tell a missing nin shit like that about yourself?"

Naruto shook his head. "Are you kidding me? I may be too fucking nice but I'm not that stupid. You're not just some missing nin. You're Tayuya and I'm more than happy telling Tayuya whatever she wants to know." He paused. "Within reason. State secrets and all that."

She was quiet for a few moments. "You really are a dumbass, you know that?"

"Yeah, well, what can I say? It just comes with being too fucking nice." He felt more than saw her smirk at that.

She paused for a moment, considering. "I don't know... If your last name is Uzumaki, what's your first?"

"Naruto."

"That sounds familiar for some reason..." She trailed off before dropped it when she couldn't think of anything. "What color are your eyes?"

"Blue."

She snorted. "Blonde hair and blue eyes. Makes you sound like some dumbass Westerner."

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know where my family's from actually. Maybe they were from the west originally." Not quite true but his Namikaze heritage was still a S-class secret. And answering any questions about his mother would open the door to other family questions he didn't want to have to deal with.

"How do you not know?"

Naruto shrugged. "They both died the day I was born. I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind."

She didn't press the subject. "What's your favorite color?"

That was a question he could answer. "Orange!"

She scoffed at that. "You're not serious are you?"

"What? Orange is a perfectly good color, thank you."

"It's bright and ugly!"

"It is not! It's the perfect blend of yellow and red! And I'll have you know all my favorite clothes are orange, including the pants you've been wearing to bed."

She shuddered. "God, I can't believe I actually wore orange!"

He scowled. "You could do with a litte more orange in your wardrobe."

"Yeah, if I wanted to be a target for any enemy in the area." She paused as if contemplating. "Though now that I think abou it, it's perfect for you. Only a dumbass with a death wish like that would help a missing nin willingly."

He gave her a little jounce. "You really should be nicer, you know."

She smirked. "I don't do nice. That's your thing remember."

He rolled his eyes. "Like you'd let me forget. So what's your favorite color?"

"Mine? Purple."

"Yech. Now that's a color everybody'd be better without."

She punched him. "Don't make fun of my color and I won't make fun of yours. Deal?"

"Deal. Now ask me another."

They went back and forth like that for a while. By the time Suna's massive walls came into view on the horizon several hours later, he could honestly say he knew more miscellaneous trivia about her than most of his friends. Things like her obsession with strawberry daiquiries or how Juniper pines were her favorite tree. Or the fact that she'd taught herself to play the flute by ear and couldn't read a note of music.

Likewise, he'd told her more about himself than _any_ of his friends. For instance, she now knew about his penchant for beaches, how his favorite drink was orange juice, and his favorite food – which, contrary to popular belief, was not ramen – was calimari.

He had to resist scowling. This unexpected interview had been a blessing and a curse. While it was amazingly gratifying to have someone show such an interest in himself, it only highlighted the fact that so few people had ever done so. Like the ramen thing. Everybody believed his favorite food was ramen since he ate at Ichiraku's all the time. He used to eat there all the time not because he was that ramen obsessed but because when he was young they'd feed him when nobody else would. Now he ate there out of gratitude for those early years; he was well aware they'd driven away a lot of business taking care of the demon brat and he wanted to make it up to them. He could count on both hands the number of people who knew about his sweet tooth for squid.

He pushed the darker thoughts away and focused on answering Tayuya's questions. Why worry about his other friends' callousness when he had one interested in him right here?

-----

Author's Note:

I'm not sure if Tayuya's 'ramen blindness' made any sense or not to all ya'll, so to clarify the surface tension of the broth reflected sound just like any hard surface. So while she knew in her head it was a soup and there were noodles in there, it looked no different than if she'd been looking at a rock on the ground.

On a more important note, this chapter really shouldn't exist. It was a mistake cutting off where I did with the last one, I should have continued on through the dinner scene and ended when they got back. Because I didn't, I was forced to output this piece of crap to bridge the gap between the last chapter and this next one. At some point in time, most likely once the story's finished, I will come back and correct this. I'll probably simply chop this chapter in half and sew the dinner scene into Chapter 4 and the rest into Chapter 6. This chapter's just two much of an eyesore – so to speak – for me to allow to stay.

Also, I'd like to thank all of you for your sympathy regarding my avian nightmare. Unfortunately, PETA scares me far more than the bird irritates me. So unfortunately, while your suggestions were all quite good, I've got little choice but to leave the bird alone. Living in a college town like I do means there's more than enough rabid tree-huggers willing to crucify me if they so much as catch me looking at the bird wrong.

So I'll continue suffering in silence and praying for God to give me the ability to kill things with my mind. That would teach the stupid bastard... (the bird, not God)

-----

Published: 11.18.09


	7. Chapter 6

**Blindsight**

Chapter 6

by Methinks

--

The sands were near scalding by the time the pair entered into the shadow of Suna's massive walls. They stopped a little ways away from the gate and he let her off. As Tayuya climbed down, keeping a death grip on his shoulder the whole time, she asked, "You promise that they're going to help me?"

"Relax. On my word as a shinobi, I'm not going to let anything happen to you." Naruto turned to face her and tipped her head up so he could look into her eyes, even if she couldn't see with them. "You remember what I said about my nindo, right?" She nodded. "Good. Come on then," he said, handing her the crutch. "Just let me do all the talking and I promise we'll be fine."

He saw her relax slightly as she took the crutch from him, but grabbed her flute with her free hand and wrapped her arm through his regardless. Together they approached the gate as the guards stepped out to challenge them. Until they realized who exactly was standing on their doorstep, "Is that you Uzumaki-sama?"

"Hey there," he waved brightly. "I think I remember you," he said to the captain approaching him. "Saizuchi-taichou, isn't it? You were here the last time I came through here."

The man smiled brightly, obviously pleased at being remembered. "That'd be me. It's good to see you back here, sir."

"I'm pretty sure I also told you not to call me sir. It makes me feel like one of those wrinkled old elders."

Saizuchi smiled. "I'll try to remember." Then he sighed. "I'd let you through, but they've told me to check all papers." Tayuya's arm tightened around his.

"It's no problem." Naruto smiled and handed the man the Konoha passport he'd fished from his pockets. The captain flipped through it once and handed it back.

"It looks like you are who you say you are. How about the lady?" Naruto could feel her beginning to panic.

"I'm afraid I'm not allowed to show them to you. It's important to Konoha that we keep her identity a secret. If it makes you feel better, you can send someone to the Kazekage to confirm it."

Saizuchi cleared his throat and stepped back. "No need. Good luck on your mission, sir," he said as the pair passed by.

As they cleared the massive walls and entered the streets Suna Naruto could feel Tayuya starting to shake. "There's so many shinobi," she rasped, her breathing coming faster and faster. "What if somebody sees me? What if they recognize me? They'll kill me and..."

Hearing the hysterical tinge rapidly entering into her voice, he gave her a quick shake. "Calm down. Nobody's going to be looking for you, they all think you're dead. Besides, I promised you, didn't I?" She nodded. "So trust me. You'll be fine." She nodded again, but still didn't relax.

At least she wasn't panicking though.

He led her as swiftly as possible through the streets of Suna and over to the Kazekage's office, her grip on his arm not loosening in the slightest the whole way there. Finally, they reached the building and Naruto stopped in front of it. All traces of the happy-go-lucky blonde were gone as he turned to Tayuya, "I know you don't want to, but I need you to give me your flute. We can't chance the guards recognizing it as a weapon. We're going to have enough problems as it is," he added underneath his breath.

Her grip tightened on it before she allowed him to take it from her and slip it in his pocket. "You better give it back."

"I will, I promise. And I'll keep it perfectly safe."

Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, he turned and opened the door. The two of them found themselves walking into a small hallway where they were immediately challenged by four of Suna's elite ANBU. "Uzumaki-sama." There were no pleasantries with these guys. "May we see your papers please?"

Wordlessly he handed them over. The ANBU looked over them considerably longer than Saizuchi had at the gate. Finally satisfied, the shinobi handed them back. "And her's?"

"Unfortunately, my mission requires complete secrecy regarding her. We need to see Gaara immediately."

The ANBU stared silently at Naruto and for a moment he was afraid that the shinobi was going to call his bluff. Finally, he acquiesced. "Just head to the waiting room and we'll notify the Kazekage that you're here to see him."

With that, the man disappeared and Naruto navigated the two of them over to the lounge provided for visitors. Once they sat down she whispered furiously, "What the fuck are you doing? The fucking Kazekage?! I knew it! I knew this was too fucking good to be true..."

He cut her off. "Quiet. He's been a friend of mine since before he became Kazekage and I've saved his life several times. He owes me. Just keep your mouth shut while we're in there. No matter what happens."

Judging by the scowl on her face, she still didn't believe him, but the ANBU from before came back before they could continue their argument. "The Kazekage is ready to see you now." Pulling Tayuya off the couch, he hauled her after the ANBU. Finally, they stopped in front of Gaara's office.

Naruto barged in without pausing to knock, "Yo!"

Gaara didn't look up from where he was staring at paperwork. "You're doing something stupid again, aren't you, Naruto?"

"Is that how you great an old friend?"

Gaara continued on without pausing. "No word from Tsunade about a mission. There's a strange woman on your arm with no papers. And the last I heard, you were saddled with enough paperwork to drown a small elephant." The sand user finally looked up with a sigh. "I'm not even going to bother asking. Just tell me how much trouble this is going to get me in with Tsunade?"

"None?" Gaara just stared at him. Naruto grinned sheepishly and scratched at the back of his head. "You remember the time we played poker and I cheated to give her a winning streak and then bet her that if she lost the next one then she'd have to have to make Gai do my paperwork with her for a whole week?" Gaara sighed and let his head drop to the table with a thump. "It's worse than that." He thumped his head again.

He sat there quietly for a few minutes before standing up and staring out the window for a few seconds. "What do you need?" he asked, massaging his temples.

Naruto's grin dropped. "She needs treatment."

"Then why don't you just take her to your hospital? It's better than ours anyways."

"There's too many people there who would recognize her."

Gaara stood quietly for another few seconds. He sighed. "Why do I let you pull me into these things?" He paused as something else occurred to him. "Will this cause me to break any treaties?"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't think so."

Gaara huffed slightly. "That's encouraging, I suppose. She's not a missing nin, is she?"

"Well, not technically. She's actually supposed to be dead, so..."

"Is she a threat to either of our countries?"

"No," Naruto said resolutely.

"And you just want her treated?"

"Without anybody knowing..."

Gaara stared quietly out the window for a few more minutes. "You do realize you are going to be owing me major concessions after this?"

Naruto grinned, knowing he had him. "I figured as much."

Suddenly, he heard someone running down the hallway before the door burst open and Temari burst into the room, fan clanking on her back. Naruto felt his heart stop for a second as he looked over at Tayuya, the woman was sheet white.

"Naruto! How's my second favorite Leaf shinobi?" she started, before seeing the look on Naruto's face and glancing over at his companion. It took only a second before Temari recognized the redhead and hissed, "You! I thought I killed you?!" She began to pull her fan off her back just as Naruto jumped in front of the redhead.

Gaara, realizing he was about to have a fight on his hands if he didn't act swiftly, put up a wall of sand between the two blondes and snapped, "Stop this!" Seeing them drop out of combat stances, he let the wall fall. "Temari, close the door." Sullenly, his sister put her fan away and obeyed. "Now both of you tell me what's going on?"

Temari beat Naruto to it. "That's one of the sound bitches responsible for kidnapping the Uchiha. I thought I'd killed her back in the forest. What the hell is she doing here?" she growled.

"Were you aware of this Naruto?" Gaara asked calmly. Naruto nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but Gaara cut him off, "Then I suggest you have a damn good reason for allowing a shinobi belonging to a recognized enemy of the Sand into the Kazekage's office or I may just decide to have the two of you hauled off to Tsunade in chains."

"She's a cripple," Naruto said bluntly. "The injuries Temari gave her damaged her lungs and throat, left her blind, and messed up her right leg. Furthermore, she was abandoned by Orochimaru following her defeat. She no longer has the curse seal. She poses absolutely no threat to either of our countries."

Temari looked at her suspiciously. "Where's her flute?"

Naruto pulled it out of his jacket and had to stop himself from flinching as Temari began laughing contemptuously, "That's her flute? She couldn't even hurt a fly with that thing!" He could feel Tayuya shaking behind him, but he wasn't sure if it was from anger or tears. Probably both, he figured.

Gaara sighed and sat back down. "Why are you doing this, Naruto?"

"Because I couldn't just leave her to die."

"She's an enemy of your country. Who knows how many of your people she's killed?!" Temari snapped.

Naruto turned towards her, a hard look in his eyes. "So were you and Gaara once," he stated quietly, his statement all the more powerful because of it. "Would you have had me kill him as well?"

Temari grew quiet and her face softened slightly as she realized the truth of the statement. The office slipped into silence until Gaara said, "We'll treat her, but she can't stay here. As soon as she's released she'll have to leave. I don't care where she goes, but it can't be in Sand country.

"I won't inform Tsunade of this, but if she asks I will be forced to tell her the truth. I will not risk relations between our countries for this woman."

Naruto nodded solemnly. "I understand. And thank you."

Gaara said nothing, but hit a button on his desk and spoke into an intercom. "Saiya, I need an ANBU escort over to the hospital. And send someone to inform them that there is a patient coming in that requires their best doctors immediately."

"Yes, sir." The intercom shut off.

"If there's any backlash from this," Naruto said quietly, "I'll make sure to take full blame for it." Gaara grunted once, but said nothing. "You know I'd do the same thing for you."

There was a knock on the door and Temari opened it to let to ANBU inside. As Naruto and Tayuya began to exit the office, Gaara spoke once, "Naruto... just take care of yourself." The Kazekage's lips twitched up into the smallest of smiles, "I'm going to be furious if I have to come break you out of Konoha's maximum security prison."

Naruto laughed, more out of relief that he hadn't destroyed things between him and Gaara than the redhead's weak joke. "Like I'd let that old hag catch me," he grinned and then led Tayuya out of the office.

--

The trip over to the hospital was made in silence and it was with a strange nervousness that he watched the medics haul Tayuya away on a stretcher. He whipped around as someone spoke behind him, "Thought I'd find you like this..." Temari said, a half-smile on her face.

"So..." she said hesitantly, when he didn't say anything, "that was quite interesting back there."

"If that's what you want to call it..."

Her face fell. "Look," she said quietly, "I'm no good at this whole apologizing crap so just hear me out. You were right in there. About all of it. And I'm sorry I flew off the handle like that."

Naruto grinned, relieved. "Don't be. You did only what any good shinobi should to protect their Kage."

"No, I should be. I should know better than to doubt you by now. You didn't just give me back Gaara, you gave me back my little brother. And I don't think I can ever repay you for that."

She hesitated. "Just answer me this, why her?"

"Why Shikamaru?" Naruto shot back. He thought for a moment before giving a small laugh. "I don't even know what I want, much less if she's it. She's foul-mouthed. We fight more times per day than Sakura and I ever did. And she's all screwed up from spending four years by herself blind in a forest."

Naruto paused. "I just know this is something I have to do. It really is just like when I saved Gaara. There was no real reason for it and every reason not to, but I just knew that I couldn't kill him. It just kinda feels right..."

Temari considered that for a few moments. "And you swear that she's no threat to either of us?"

Naruto looked at her dead serious, "I'll kill her myself before that happens."

She regarded him in silence for a few more seconds before her customary smirk reappeared on her face. "Anyways, Gaara's already doing everything he officially can to help out. Anymore and Tsunade would be well within her rights to string him up by his heels. However, I may have accidentally overheard him mention that our customs office was so booked right now that another set of papers could easily get lost in the works."

She gave him a outright wicked smile. "How does Yakamura Keisei sound?"

Naruto grinned back.

--

Author's Note:

Wow. Over a month since I posted the last chapter. I'm not going to lie, it would likely have been longer too if it hadn't been for Avatar (the movie, not the show).

When I first started writing this, I made a promise to myself I wasn't going to post any other stories until I had this one finished. And trust me, I have plenty of other stories I could post (getting involved in two new ones was what originally kept me - a Harry Potter and another Naruto). But I am now breaking that self-ban with zero regrets.

For those of you who haven't watched James Cameron's new movie, go. Now. It's amazing. I myself was rather skeptical going into the movie but found myself spell-bound from the moment it started. The story sunk its claws in me, pulled me in, and quite honestly I'm desperately struggling to keep it from letting me go. That's what this new story, _Tsa'helu_, is - my attempt at remaining in a world I find far greater than this one.

Unfortunately, this one is the one we're stuck with, including the responsibilities within. So in tandem with posting _Tsa'helu_, I'm - obviously - posting this chapter. And as this story came first, it will remain my first priority. As such, I'm going to make a point of only posting one chapter in _Tsa'helu_ for every two chapters in **Blindsight**. My own personal motivation to finish this one up. Though I will admit to skimping on said responsibilities with this chapter, seeing as how it's half my usual chapter length. Sorry, but I just really, _really_ wanted to jump into Avatar. I guarantee the next chapter will be back up to my usual 5,000 words.

So just bear with me, beloved readers. This story _will_ be completed sooner or later and we will at last be able to move onto bigger and better things together (not including _Tsa'helu_, of course). Or at least hopefully you'll still be with me. And I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, or at least what's there of it.

–

Published: 12.24.09


	8. Chapter 7

**Blindsight**

Chapter 7

by Methinks

**-----**

It had only taken the nurses an hour after Temari's departure before they sent someone to Gaara asking him to ban Naruto from the hospital for the duration of Tayuya's surgeries. The blonde had become a menace, pacing around the waiting room, pestering every nurse or doctor he walked by for news of her condition, and repeatedly trying to slip back to her operating room. It was with no small relief that the waiting room attendant saw Temari come walking back in through the double doors.

The blonde kunoichi walked up to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "I hear that you're terrorizing innocent civilians," she joked.

He gave Temari a weak smile. "I know. I just hate sitting here knowing that I can't do anything to help."

She smiled consolingly at him. "You're going to be an absolute nightmare when you have a kid, I just know it." Then she grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a shove towards the door. "Come on, Gaara's assigned me a D-rank mission to keep you out of the hospital for the next couple of hours. So we're going to go eat something. Your treat."

"What?!" he yelled, feeling some of the tension drain out of him at his friend's presence. "You're the one getting paid. You should be buying _me_ something!"

"Hell, no! I remember the last time I went out to eat with you leaf-heads. You ate enough for a freaking sumo wrestler. Ain't no way I'm paying for that!"

The two of them kept arguing amiably as they made their way out of the hospital and into the crowded streets of Suna.

**-----**

Two hours and an expensive - much to Naruto's chagrin - barbecue dinner later, Naruto and Temari found themselves aimlessly wandering the streets as the sun began to set. "It's ironic," Temari mused. "The first time I met Shikamaru was during my fight with her. Well," she amended, "on friendly terms at least." She gave Naruto a mischievous grin.

Naruto's brow crinkled. "Why is that ironic?"

"Well, you know. They were both fighting each other, and now I'm with Shikamaru and you might be with her. The whole symmetry there..."

He chuckled. "I suppose that is rather ironic."

"You know, I remember being rather impressed with her," Temari reminisced. "She'd really done a number on him. And I know from experience that pineapple-headed moron is no pushover, no matter how much he moans and complains."

"I don't think I ever actually heard about any of the other fights that day. I was too caught up worrying about Sasuke to care..."

"Well, I can't really vouch for Shikamaru's half of the battle," Temari began, "but when I got there she'd been about to gut him with his own kunai. I barely managed to save the moron. And then, while I was making sure he was alright, she disappeared on me. So I dropped the forest on her head." She shrugged. "Seemed like a sound plan to me. Didn't even think to make sure she was actually dead."

Naruto sighed. "Things always seemed so much easier back then, you know? Never worrying about the consequences of our actions or having to tip-toe around to please the politicians. It just all seemed so black and white back then."

She sighed as well. "No kidding. Though that feels like forever ago now." She laughed slightly. "I can still remember the day I first met you. You and Kankuro had your little pissing contest while Gaara and the Uchiha kept trying to kill each other with their eyes."

He grinned. "We did, didn't we? And I remember I got so pissed off too. Even though I was there first Sasuke still got all the attention. She's trying to get me to call him the 'cocksucker', you know."

Temari turned to look at him oddly. "Huh?"

Naruto chuckled. "Tayuya's trying to get me to call Sasuke the 'cocksucker'. Says I'm 'too fucking nice' and that she's going to start breaking me of that, beginning with Sasuke."

Temari laughed. "I think I could grow to like this girl. Anybody willing to counsel you against the Uchiha can't be too bad in my book."

"He's not that bad," Naruto defended.

She shot him a look and he wilted beneath it. "He is and you know it, Naruto. You need to get over this little soft spot you have for him. I'm all for you being 'too fucking nice' but I don't want to see you let him take advantage of that and get yourself killed."

He sighed. "I know. It's just hard sometimes. He was my first friend, you know."

She smiled softly. "I do know. But don't forget, you've got plenty of friends now who would be crushed to see you die." She threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. "I love you like a little brother and I honestly don't know what I would do if I lost you. And I don't even want to imagine what would happen to Gaara. Please don't make us find out, Naruto."

He smiled thankfully in return. "Thanks, Temari. For what it's worth, you've been a pretty good sister to me too." Then his expression grew mock-serious. "Though why do I have to be the little brother? Why can't you be the little sister?"

"Because I'm older than you for starters. Not to mention you're a loud-mouthed little brat." She grinned and smiled him with her hip. "Though it looks like even brats eventually grow up. I have to admit that I'm a little bit impressed with the way you've turned out. You're a lot more mature than I ever expected you to be. You handled yourself wonderfully today. Things could have gone so much worse back in the office. Konoha will be lucky to have you as it's Hokage."

Naruto blushed. "You're really not supposed to know about that. The old hag would kill me if she found out anyone outside the village knew."

"Yeah well, when you blabbed to Gaara you knew full well he was gonna blab to us, didn't you?" He felt himself blush even more. "HA!" She pointed at him. "I knew it!"

"You guys are honorary Konoha nin's in my opinion."

She laughed. "Does that mean when Gaara finally snaps and murders all those meddling old farts in the village council, we can come hide out with you?"

Naruto grinned. "Hell, I'll help you do it. Just as long as you promise to repay the favor when I get fed up with mine."

Temari suddenly sobered up and stopped. "I want to apologize again for earlier."

He waved his hand dismissively. "I thought we already went over this. Besides, you guys have already more than made up for it. "

"No, that was just another payment on that massive debt we owe you." She pointed at a store to the side. "This is to make up for it." He looked over to see a small music shop. "I've asked around and it's the best in town. You're not going to find finer instruments anywhere in Suna. Now you can buy her a new flute to replace her other one."

He hesitated. "Aren't you worried that she'll..."

She cut him off. "I trust you. And because you trust her, I trust her." When he still didn't move she gave him a shove. "Go on, you know you want to. I'll wait out here."

Slowly, Naruto entered the small shop and found himself completely out of his element. The walls were covered with instruments of every kind and stacks of books and sheet music lay piled about haphazardly. Fortunately, he was saved by an old man sitting behind an antique cash register. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah..." Naruto said slowly. "I want to buy a flute."

The man perked up. "Well now, let's see what we can do. Do you know what you want?"

Naruto gave an embarrassed laugh and scratched his head. "I'm afraid I have no idea. It's a surprise for a friend of mine."

The old man gave Naruto another look, a strange glint in his eye. "So, it's like that than, is it? Well, we'll have to make sure she gets the best." He paused. "It is a she, right?"

Naruto laughed, blushing slightly. "Yes, it is a she. But it's nothing like that. I might be a little interested, but it'd never work out. We're just good friends."

"Nonsense," the man huffed. "If you want it enough, it'll work out. Still, she shall have the best." The man led Naruto to the back of the store to a small section of woodwinds.

As the man began to browse through the flutes, murmuring to himself, Naruto suddenly remembered the wooden one in his pocket. Pulling it out he offered it to the man. "I don't know if this helps any, but she was playing on this."

The man snatched it from him and began examining it. "Remarkable," he murmured. "It's extremely crude, but..." He blew a few notes on it. "The fact that she managed to make it play at all is simply remarkable."

Suddenly, he looked back up at Naruto. "Your friend is a shinobi, isn't she?"

"Yeah, how..."

The man smacked his head with her flute, cutting him off. "Well, why didn't you tell me that to begin with?"

"I didn't know it mattered," he muttered, rubbing his head.

"Well," the man harrumphed, "Normally it wouldn't, but it does now." He held up her flute. "This here is a rare variation on a normal flute. I won't bore you with all the details cause I doubt you'd understand them," Naruto found himself scowling at the man, "but basically the holes are positioned differently to make it easier to use in battle. But they're extremely difficult to master and their use fell by the wayside when the old music-using clans died out. You rarely ever see one of these now-a-days. They're highly prized by collectors."

Naruto sighed. "I take it you don't have one then?"

"Actually, I do." The blonde perked up. "It's been part of my private collection for a few years now." Seeing Naruto's face fall again, he held up his hand and said softly, "But, it is my firm belief that the only way to truly appreciate an instrument is to play it, not to let it sit on a shelf gathering dust."

He held up the wooden flute again. "Did she make this?" Naruto nodded. "Quite frankly, this flute is crap." Naruto glared at him indignantly and opened his mouth to defend her, but the man cut him off before he was able. "But I can see the amount of time and care she's put into it and I can tell that she'll be able to appreciate the war flute far better than I ever could." He handed the wooden one back to Naruto. "I'll go get it for you."

The man came back about eight minutes later, carefully carrying a steel case. Setting it down gently on the counter by the register, he unlatched the case revealing the flute nestled in the heavily padded velvet interior. Even Naruto, with his complete lack of any musical talent, could appreciate the instrument.

It wasn't particularly breathtaking in and of itself; it was just a plain flute, though it had been made out of some semi-blue metal that appeared to dull the shine. It was a weapon, after all, and what self-respecting shinobi went into battle with a weapon designed to attract the enemy's attention to you.

However, it was obvious that the store-owner had put long hours of care into it, shining and polishing it until Naruto could actually see himself in it. The few keys he pressed moved easily and without any resistance from misalignment or rust, and every single one of the key pads appeared new as the day they were made. Finally, Naruto sighed. "I can't take this," he told the man regretfully. "There's no way I could afford it."

"Nonsense! I'm not selling it to you, I'm giving it to you."

Naruto choked and stared. "There's no way I could accept that."

"Young man, I'm old. My wife died ten years ago and I have no children to pass my things on to. In a few years, I'll be too old to take care of all this and I'll end up selling it before dying in some god-forsaken nursing home. At which point, this flute will end up in the hands of some other collector who will simply lock it in a glass case and forget about it."

The man looked at Naruto solemnly. "Take the flute, young man, and give it to her. And if you really want to pay me back, you can bring her back here so she can play it from me. That would be worth far more than any money you could ever give me."

Naruto's mouth opened and closed silently, for one of the few times in his life left speechless. "I don't know what to say..."

The man snorted. "Than don't say anything. Just go and give her the damn thing." Closing the case again, he latched it and locked it with a small key which he then handed to Naruto. Then he shoved the case in Naruto's hands and began pushing him out the door. "What are you waiting for? Your lady love awaits."

Naruto chuckled as he gave in. "Fine. My lady love is in the hospital so it might be sometime before she's able, but I swear to you I will bring her here to play it for you."

"Thank you, young man. Now scram." Then he gave Naruto a final push out the door, before closing it and locking it behind him.

"Your lady love, huh?" Temari cackled from where she had been sitting down beside the door. Naruto blushed, he had completely forgotten she was there. "Don't you think you're moving a little fast?"

He gave her a small shove as she got up. "Shut it. From what I hear, you and Shikamaru had barely spent hours together before you were going at it like knives."

Temari laughed. "What are you talking about? We were going at each other from the moment we met. Except then it was with weapons in an arena instead of naked in a bed."

Naruto clutched at his head, screwing up his face in mock-agony. "No! Get it out! So... Horrible..."

It was Temari's turn to give him a push. "Now you shut it." She waited until he stopped laughing. "Anyways, an ANBU messenger stopped by while you were in there to let us know that she's finally out of surgery."

That got his attention. "How'd it go?"

She gave him a smirk. "Didn't ask. Figured I'd let you stew for a little bit more." She laughed at the look on his face. "Relax, I wouldn't do that to you. He said it went fine, but if you want to know the particulars you're going to have to talk to the doctors themselves. Come on, we'll take the shortcut." With that, the two of them jumped to the roofs and made their way down to the hospital.

**-----**

Naruto ignored the glares the nurses were giving him as Temari led him down to Tayuya's room. She stopped right outside. "I don't know if she's awake or not so I'm not going to go inside. I don't think she'd appreciate it too much. I'll go find the doctor and send him down here for you."

Then she wrapped him in a hug and said quietly, "I'm not going to try to give you any advice, cause I have none to give. Me and Shika just worked, plain and simple. But whatever you decide, make sure it's because it's what makes you happy and not because Tsunade or the council or anybody else says otherwise. You're always putting others in front of yourself, but please for once in your life be selfish about this. I don't want you to end up regretting something because it was what someone else wanted." She gave him a tight squeeze and let go blushing. "And if you tell anybody what I just said you'll be wishing Tsunade had thrown you into that prison of yours." With that she turned and ran off before he could say anything.

Naruto gave the retreating woman a soft smile before turning around and entering the room. The lights were turned off and she was sleeping, the only sound the quiet beep of the monitors hooked up to her. Using the soft glow from the monitors, he grabbed the one chair in the room and pulled it up next to her bed before setting the flute case down beside it. Before he could sit down though, he heard a quiet knock at the door as one of the doctors cracked it open. Naruto stepped outside so they could talk.

"How'd it go?" he asked quietly.

"Well," the doctor began, "She was in pretty bad shape. Her lungs were nearly shot with infection and the resulting cough is what damaged her throat to such an extent. I believe we managed to extract the worst of the bacteria, but the process we were forced to use prevented us from getting all of it."

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Think of it this way, her lungs are an old cabinet and the bacteria is the dust. When you put down the dust rag to clean it, it unfortunately knocks some of the dust into the air where you can't get it. Then you have to wait for it to settle before you can clean up the remainder. It's an extremely crude analogy but accurate enough."

"So what does that mean for her?"

"Tomorrow morning we're going to have to go back in and repeat the procedure and clean out everything we missed. If after the operation, the surgeon believes a second repeat is necessary, we'll schedule her for the day after that. The likelihood of her requiring a second repeat is low, however, though not entirely unlikely. It would be primarily about being thorough enough to give her weakened immune system a slight reprieve, and we already have her on an antibiotic IV drip that we hope will strengthen her enough to make that unnecessary."

Naruto nodded slowly, only Tsunade's badgering allowing him to follow any of that. "What about the rest of her? Her leg and her eyes?"

"Unfortunately, the removal technique we had to use on her lungs is a very invasive and time-consuming procedure, and with all the other stresses on her body we didn't risk any other operations today. We'll have a nurse in overnight to give her regular infusions of healing chakra to reduce the stress and speed up the recovery process so we can hopefully proceed with the surgery tomorrow. Then, barring any unexpected complications, the morning's surgery should be minor enough to allow us to proceed with operating on her legs tomorrow afternoon.

"What's that going to take?"

"Basically what we will end up doing is physically cutting out the part of the bone that healed incorrectly and, using a rather complicated jutsu, regrow that part of the bone. However, once it's done it's going to need time to harden so she will have to stay off that leg completely for several weeks. It will also keep us from healing the damaged muscle with medical jutsu, so she's going to have to deal with old-fashioned stitches until it heals up."

"Why can't you heal the muscle?"

"It's... how do I explain this? Think of it this way, medical jutsu accelerates the healing process many times over at the cost of weakening the overall result. So while we can regrow the missing bone, what we grow is not going to be as strong as a naturally healed bone and will not be able to withstand the strain healing the musculature would place on it. So while we can jumpstart the process, I'm afraid she's going to have to heal her leg the old-fashioned way, time and rest."

Naruto frowned. "I see. Is there anything else?"

The doctor cleared his throat. "Well, since Kazekage-sama ordered us to do everything we could for her, we have her scheduled for some minor cosmetic surgery to remove the majority of the scarring on her body. It's a very simple procedure and won't have any impact on the other operations she needs, so we're planning on doing it while she's still on the table after her leg operation. The only scars she'll have left afterwards will be the scar on her leg from where the bone originally pierced the tissue and the new one leftover from the stitches.

"Other than that, she was suffering from severe malnutrition so we have her on a second IV drip to help restore her vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The chakra infusions will help with that as well. When she's released, I'll have them bring up some vitamins for her to take along with the prescriptions we'll be giving her. Other than that, with a healthy diet and some exercise she should be better in no time."

"Did you figure out what was wrong with her eyes?"

The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid our initial diagnostic techniques could find no medical reason for the blindness. We will check again in the morning, but I'm inclined to believe it's primarily psychological in nature. It would be rare, but not completely unheard of, for a severe trauma victim such as herself to convince herself of her own blindness, especially if she was trapped in some dark place.

"But I will be the first to admit that blindness is not our specialty. Perhaps if you were to take her to Konoha, the doctors there will be able to find something we missed."

Naruto paused to absorb everything. "Thank you, doctor, I appreciate your time."

"It was our pleasure, young man. I'm sure you're just itching to talk to her, but her next lung treatment is scheduled for 0830 in the morning, so make sure to let her get some sleep." With a smile, the doctor turned and walked off as Naruto walked back into her room.

He made his way over to the chair and sat down quietly. With a sigh he dropped his head onto the bed next to her hand. "Whatever am I going to do with you?" he asked her quietly. When she didn't answer, he began to feel fatigue overwhelm him, and his eyelids slowly began to droop. In a few moments, he was asleep next to her.

**-----**

The first thing he noticed was her thumb gently tracing his cheekbone, causing a feeling of utter contentment to fill him as she inadvertently stroked his whiskers. Realizing he was waking up she suddenly stopped and began to pull away, but he caught her hand and brought it back to his face. "Please don't stop," he murmured. After a moment's hesitation she began again, drawing a contented sigh from his lips and causing his eyes to close in absolute bliss.

The two sat in silence for a while before she finally whispered, "Who are you, Uzumaki Naruto? Why are you doing so much for me?"

He shrugged, reluctantly tearing himself away from her ministrations as he sat up. "Because it was the right thing to do." He paused. "And I wanted to."

"But why?"

He barked a short laugh. "Hell if I know. You certainly don't make it easy." He paused as if considering, then winked at her. "Must be for your fingers."

"Stop fucking around!" she snarled. "Why the fuck are you doing all this?!"

Naruto's grin disappeared. He sat for a few moments before he said quietly, "You know, from the moment I first saw the look in his eyes I knew that Gaara and I were exactly the same. We both grew up hating the world and everyone in it; neither of us knowing who we were, why our people hated us so much, or even why we existed..." His voice began trembling slightly, though he doubted anyone other than Tayuya with her hearing could have told. "I can still hear their whispers in my nightmares, 'Don't look at him. Don't go near him. Go away. Monster! Demon! Die!' Do you have any idea what that does to a six year old?

"Even now, when I think of the pain I felt back then, I can still feel it tearing at my heart. It was a dark and endless hell, full of loneliness and despair; that feeling that you are not needed, or even wanted, by anyone in this world... it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life.

Naruto lifted his head and stared at the wall, eyes unfocused as he remembered back. "But while his village continued to try and kill him, I finally found someone willing to accept me for myself. I finally felt like I existed and I swore I'd give my life before I'd let someone take that feeling away from me."

Naruto laughed softly. "You know, Gaara asked me that exact same question after I won but would not kill him. 'Why? Why do you do this for strangers?'"

He turned to look at her. "I do it because I know that pain. Even now, I can still feel it when I see the loathing in peoples' eyes as they look at me. And I'll be damned before I let anybody else suffer it when I have the power to do something about it."

He was suddenly surprised to find silent tears rolling down her face. "You want to know why, Tayuya? Because when you finally opened your eyes and looked at me, I saw in your eyes that same suffering and despair that I've felt all my life. So I'm doing this because I understand. Because nobody should ever know the pain of feeling like you shouldn't even exist. Because you _do _exist and people do care about you."

He gave her a wry smile. "Because _I _care about you, Tayuya, even if you are a pain in my ass. That's why I'm doing this."

The two of them sat in silence for a long time after his confession. Finally she gave a small chuckle through her tears. "You just want me for my fingers."

Naruto laughed. "They certainly help."

**-----**

Author's Notes:

A couple things with this one. First, caveats on the flute and the medicine. While I did play a year of flute back in middle-school (forever and a day ago), I was never any good with it and barely remember any of the particulars of the actual playing or care. But as she now has a real flute and her throat and lungs are being fixed, the flute will start playing a slightly more important role so I'm going to ask any real musicians out there to please forgive whatever mistakes I may make in those regards.

As far as the medical mumbo-jumbo goes, I know jack crap about science, biology, and medicine. My college career has had me dabbling in four different languages (english, french, german, and japanese), business (economics and marketing), political science, criminology, anthropology, game theory, history, and literature. So while I could easily construct an international political economy for the elemental nations, I am completely bullshitting this scene here. So if I'm grossly off about something, please tell me and I'll fix it, but otherwise, please don't nitpick the little things. As much as I enjoying writing this story, I'm not prepared to go out and study medicine just to get this right.

_(Though I'd like to thank AznPuffyHair for correcting me on a number of major medical points in the first posting of this chapter. It's people like you that make it so I can remain ignorant. ;p)_

Anyways, this last part was rather difficult to write. I only wanted to have him hint about what he's feeling for her here, not quite ready to totally vocalize his feelings, and I'm not quite sure how well I pulled that off. I think I'm satisfied with it though, his statement about caring about her can be taken about a hundred different ways depending on how you look but I think when taken with his actual actions regarding her, she gets the message.

Regardless, thank ya'll for being patient and bearing with me for so long. The romance you've all been asking for is finally beginning to take off. However, don't expect them to immediately jump into the kissing and goo-goo eyes stage. While they're aware that they want each other, neither of them are still sure about the way the other feels and they both know just how big the obstacles they face are so they're still going to be resisting the feelings. But love conquers all, right?

Thanks to everybody who reviewed and enjoy.

**-----**

On a side note, after my statement last chapter about all the stories I'm waiting to post, I actually went and browsed through my Stories folder. I have the initial plot and at least the first three chapters written for four different Harry Potter stories, four Naruto stories, two Neverwinter Nights stories, and my Avatar story. Then I have a skeleton plot and at least the first chapter for four more HP stories, six more Naruto stories, a Dragon Age: Origins story, and another Avatar story. Obviously I need to stop starting new stories and just finish the ones I've got... :(

**-----**

Published: 12.28.09

Updated: 1.01.10


	9. Chapter 8

**Blindsight**

Chapter 8

by Methinks

**-----**

It hadn't taken Tayuya long after their heart-to-heart to fall asleep, causing Naruto no small sense of relief. The woman had his emotions tying themselves in knots ever since he'd met her. He desperately needed some time to himself to find some sort of stability, and he knew exactly what he was planning to do with that time.

Standing up, he slipped the flute case out of sight behind her bed and left the hospital. Taking a moment to remember exactly where he was, he turned and began to race towards the training field Gaara had provided him with the last time he was in town. He was sure that the redhead wouldn't mind loaning it to him again.

Unsurprisingly, the field was empty considering the time, which, judging by the position of the moon, was just past midnight. Naruto gratefully shrugged out of his coat and summoned up a trio of Kage Bunshins, pumping extra chakra into them to reinforce their structure. If there was one thing that never failed to help him wrap his head around things, it was a good fight.

He quickly lost himself in the spar, pushing himself harder and faster than he had since his last fight with Lee. As he destroyed the last of the clones, it was with no small bit of shock that he felt three weak chakra signatures hiding behind a rock on the edge of the field. It wasn't often he allowed himself to get distracted enough to loose his situational awareness. Performing a quick shunshin, he was surprised to find his visitors were three young genin, watching him and whispering to each other.

The look on their faces as they turned around and saw him standing there was so reminiscent of himself as a genin that he couldn't help laughing. "Isn't it a little late for you three to be out here?"

The first boy, a fierce looking brunette stepped forward and puffed out his chest. "We're not afraid of you!"

The second, a blonde haired girl who looked scarily like a combination of Ino and Sakura, stepped forward and bopped the first on the head before asking timidly. "You're from Konoha, aren't you?"

Naruto smiled disarmingly and nodded. "Yep! I came here on a secret mission for the Hokage."

The third, a gleam that Naruto recognized all too well in his eyes. "Who cares? Teach us that clone thing you were doing!"

"I'm afraid that's one of Konoha's secret techniques. I'd get in huge trouble if they found out that I showed it to you." He stopped and looked piercingly at them. "Besides, won't you get in trouble from your teacher if he finds you out here?"

Brat Three stuck his tongue out at him. "She's out on a mission so she'll never even know!"

Naruto sighed. "There's no way I can convince you to go home, is there." It wasn't a question.

Brat Three grinned rebelliously. "Not a chance!"

Naruto couldn't help grinning back. "How about this then, we'll play a little game. If you can beat me, I'll teach you a technique I used against the Kazekage when we were still genins."

Brat Two gasped. "You've fought the Kazekage?!"

"Yep! This was back before Konoha and Suna were allies."

Brat One said. "There's no way you ever fought him. Nobody's ever fought against Gaara-sama and lived."

Naruto struck a Lee pose. "No one before me! Don't believe me, ask him about his first Chuunin Exam sometime." Then he shrugged and grinned. "It was a close thing though. The two of us almost wrecked a whole forest during our fight."

He couldn't help laughing at the look of awe on the three's faces. "Anyways, you wanna play or not?"

Brat Three scoffed. "Of course we do! We'll show you what Sand shinobi can do!"

"I'm sure you will." Looking around, he picked up a small rock and clutched it tightly in his fist. "The game's real simple, you just have to take this rock from me. There's no rules so you can use any technique or weapon that you want."

Brat Three laughed. "That's it?! I'll take that in no time!"

Performing a quick shunshin back to the center of the field, Naruto shouted back to them, "Come at me whenever you're ready. But keep in mind that if you don't attack with the intent to kill, you won't ever get the rock from me." With that, the three genins charged.

Naruto had to admit, it was extremely amusing to watch three kids, barely out of the academy, face off against a SS-class Jounin. This must have been what Kakashi felt during his original bell test. But while he toyed around with the three of them, he could feel the tension leaving his body. He'd made it through everything back then as a genin, friendless and stupid. He had no doubt that now – older, wiser, and with plenty of people to help - somehow he'd be able to do the same thing.

It was several hours before the kids finally wore themselves out, futilely trying to get the rock from him. When they finally collapsed, Naruto laughed and crouched down beside them, tossing the rock at their feet. "Even if you didn't manage to get it, you guys did good. A lot better than I first did when my sensei played this game with me. I ended up tied up against a log."

The three of them laughed exhaustedly. "But this means no technique?" asked Brat Three, disappointment heavy in his voice.

"It means no technique, yet." Naruto said brightly. "I'll come back the next time I'm here or you guys can come to Konoha and we'll do this again until you beat me. Sound fair enough?"

Brat Thre shouted excitedly, "Alright! We'll train hard and kick your ass next time!" The other two nodded their heads in agreement.

Naruto laughed. "I'll look forward to it." Walking over to his coat he fished a few bills out of Gama Chan. "Here, you guys treat yourself to a nice breakfast. I'm afraid I have to leave now, but I expect to see you guys soon. Just ask for Uzumaki Naruto!" With that he jumped off, completely missing their stunned faces as they learned his name.

"That was Uzumaki Naruto?!" whispered Brat One.

--

Opening the door to Tayuya's room, he was immediately belted in the head with a plastic cup. And then a bowl. He somehow managed to dodge the plate. "What the hell?!"

"That's my fucking question," she snapped, hoisting the metal case he had hidden. "This better not be what I think it is..."

Naruto gaped. "How'd you get that? I thought I left it on the floor."

"One of those shitty nurses gave it to me." She glared. "Now answer the goddamn question."

He sighed and fished the key out of his pocket. "See for yourself." He walked over and handed it to her, making sure to stay out of range of her arms.

Hands shaking slightly, though her face remained carefully blank, she slid the key into the lock and listened to it open with a click. She stared a few more seconds before finally raising the lid of the case and reaching in slowly. She gasped as she picked up the flute and for a few seconds as she explored it with her fingers, open delight crossed her face. Then it turned quickly into rage. "Take it back!"

Naruto's jaw dropped. "What?!"

"I said take it the fuck back you shit-eating tapeworm!" Her fists clenched furiously, "I am not some fucking charity case for you to buy shit for!"

"A, it's not charity cause I wanted you to have it," he snapped back, "And B, I didn't actually buy it." He saw the rage rolling on her face at the thought that he'd stolen it and he quickly backpedaled. "It was given to me."

The anger lessened, but didn't disappear. "What the fuck do you mean it was given to you?" she hissed.

"During your surgery I stopped by a music store and yes, I was going to buy you something. I don't know about you, but for me it's customary to give friends 'Get Well' presents."

Her face softened somewhat, but he knew he was from being out of the hole yet. "Yeah, you get them a cheap-ass get well card, not a fucking flute."

"Yeah, well, I didn't feel like getting you a card..." Naruto scratched his head as he continued. "Anyways, I showed your wooden flute to the owner and he insisted on giving me this one. He said he'd rather see it in the hands of someone who would actually appreciate instead of just letting it grow dusty on a shelf. All he wanted was for you to come and play it for him."

"I still don't like it..." she muttered. "Do you know how much one of these would cost? This is an actual Uonuma war flute."

"How can you tell?"

"The hole positioning is slightly different than other war flutes and it has a tortoise shell etched into it here," she said, pointing beside the first key.

"I take it it's a nice flute then?"

"Nice?" She snorted disbelievingly. "It's the fucking S-rank of war flutes. The Uonuma clan kicked the bucket ages ago and there's barely any of these left. And even fewer in this good condition; this feels like it's been barely used. Whatever dumbass just gave this to you took damn good care of it."

"Well, I suppose you'll just have to play extra beautifully for him then, won't you?" Naruto said, slightly miffed at her reaction. He hadn't known exactly what to expect from his gift, but some gratitude would have been nice.

She must have picked up something in his voice, because her hands dropped to her lap and she gave him a quiet, "Thank you."

His mood picked up. "Don't mention it," he muttered blushingly.

He went and dropped into the chair beside the redhead, causing her to wrinkle her nose. He couldn't help thinking that she looked rather cute like that. "You smell like shit."

He chuckled. "Yeah, well, apparently that's what happens when you spar with three overactive Sand genin."

She gave him an odd look. "Only you... I take it that's what you were doing while I was in here stewing about this?"

"Yeah, I had to go outside or I would have gone crazy." He shrugged. "I guess I just needed a little time to regroup."

"It's not like you're the easiest person in the world to live with, either," she muttered.

He wasn't about to touch that one with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole, considering how volatile she seemed at the moment. Changing the subject, Naruto asked, "I take it the doctors came and spoke with you then?"

She nodded. "Told me what they'd done to my lungs and that I have another surgery in an hour. Then they said they'd be able to fix my fucking leg but that it was going to hurt like a bitch for a while and I'll need to keep off of it for at least two weeks." Then a dark expression wafted over her face as she growled, "And that the blindness was all in my fucking head. The cum-gargling fuckhead better be glad I can't move or I'd rip his spine out his ass and then shove it back in through his spleen. Like hell it's all in my fucking head!" She slammed a fist down on the bed.

At that moment, a knock sounded on her door. One look at Tayuya's face showed Naruto, he'd best talk to the doctor himself or the redhead might blow up and turn the man into a gibbering wreck. Not everybody had the blonde's thick skin. "I think I'll go see what he wants."

"Yeah," she said darkly. "You do that. And perhaps while you're at it, you can tell him to..." Naruto winced as he got up, the series of expletives that came spewing from her mouth shocking even him with their anger. He wasn't sure some of things she was suggesting were physically possible, even for ninjas.

Apparently, neither was the doctor, as he blanched as part of her diatribe rang out the open door to the room when Naruto stepped outside. Naruto chuckled embarrassedly. "Sorry about that. She's... well, she's not very happy right now."

"That's one way to put it," the doctor mumbled to himself. Then he cleared his throat and assumed a more professional expression. "We're ready to begin prepping her for surgery. I can come back in five minutes if you still need time but we need to begin soon."

Naruto nodded. "You might want to do that, give her some time to cool down. How long is the operation going to last?"

"The operation itself should only take about an hour but because of her leg surgery this afternoon, she's going to be sedated for most of the day." The doctor coughed into his hand and blushed slightly. "I'm- ah... I'm told to ask you on behalf of the nurses to find something to do today outside the hospital."

Naruto sighed. "I expected as much. I'll figure something out, I suppose." He turned back to the doctor. "Alright, give me five minutes, I'll try to cool her down, and then you can go ahead and do whatever it is you need her for."

The doctor nodded and turned to leave but Naruto's last words stopped him in his tracks. "But if I were you, I'd bring a helmet just in case."

–

Tayuya had not, in fact, calmed down by the time the doctor had returned, and it took a large male orderly and the threat of sedation to settle her down enough to wheel her off for surgery. Apparently she was taking the whole 'in your head' thing far more personally than she'd originally let on.

Despite no longer having to worry about her dying, Naruto was even worse off than the day before. Once the doctors had wheeled the redhead off to the operating room, they'd had the same large orderly from before escort the blonde from the premises. He'd drifted around aimlessly for about an hour before deciding to hunt down Temari. However, she'd been nowhere to be found. Still, as it wasted another two hours of his time, he considered it time well spent.

Nobody else was available either. Kankuro was apparently out on some sort of assassination mission. Gaara was sequestered in meetings with the Village Council and Baki was locked up with him. He'd even been desperate enough to try and hunt down the three genin from earlier, but even they had seemingly disappeared.

He eventually ended up in an ancient ninja dive not from the Kazekage's office. Unlike Konoha, where alcohol was not only an acceptable coping mechanism but a very popular one, drinking was very highly frowned upon in Suna. The whole 'diuretic' thing, Naruto supposed. Personally, he thought it was a good idea simply on principle. Alcohol made people do stupid things, something that could be lethal in a ninja's line of work – not just for themselves but for their teammates. Why risk everything just for a few hours of blurred thinking, foggy memory, and a nasty hangover?

Of course, the fact that Kyuubi kept him from getting drunk – or even buzzed – no matter how much he drank had nothing to do with his decision.

Instead, this bar served expensive fruit drinks, both hydrating and tasty. Naruto was rather surprised to see how popular the little place was – it seemed Suna shinobi compensated for their lack of alcohol addictions by developing strong sweet tooths. Still, he couldn't exactly blame them. The smoothies were damn good, a good thing considering the high price.

Six hours, ten smoothies, and three semi-awkward discussions with the cute 'bartender' and several wizened Suna nins later, Naruto found himself heading back to the hospital with an empty wallet and a full bladder. He wasn't positive Tayuya was out of surgery yet, the doctor hadn't exactly been precise regarding her schedule, but it'd been ten hours since they wheeled her off and he figured that ought to be enough time.

It turned out it wasn't, but he'd been close. It was another thirty minutes after he arrived back at the hospital before they wheeled her out of the OR. As soon as a nurse let him know of Tayuya's new room, Naruto was off. The doctor had barely finished settling the unconscious redhead in before the blonde burst in and accosted him. "How did it go? How is she?"

The doctor smiled at him. "Don't worry, all three procedures went off without a hitch. Her lungs are nearly spotless again and all she needs is a little time before they'll be as good as new. The same with her leg." Then he swept his arm out wide towards the sleeping kunoichi. "And as you can see, her skin's as good as new too."

"So does this mean she's not going to have to come back in for a third operation tomorrow?"

The doctor nodded. "That's correct. We still want to keep her overnight for observation but she should be able to leave tomorrow morning." He frowned. "Ideally we'd like to keep her longer, perhaps for the week, but the Kazekage's ordered us to have her out of here as soon as possible. I hope you understand."

Considering the way the man was frowning, he not only didn't understand but was rather displeased about being forced to discharge a patient so quickly. Naruto understood perfectly however. He actually rather suspected Gaara was pushing her out so quickly not only for Suna's benefit but for Naruto's, and indirectly his, as well. The stoic redhead had borne witness to hospitalized Naruto several times before and knew just what a nightmare he was. The blonde suspected neither of them wanted to find out what he'd be like with his 'lady love' chaining him there instead.

"Don't worry, I have complete faith in your skills. I'm sure she'll be just fine."

The doctor harrumphed. "Yes, well. It's the principle of the matter. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, there's no cause to worry but what if she's case one hundred?" The he cleared his throat, adjusted his glasses, and changed the subject. "Anyways, she'll be out of it for most of the night. A nurse will be up here at the start of each hour to give her another chakra infusion and to make sure everything still looks fine. Barring anything unexpected, we'll let you check out at 0800 tomorrow."

Naruto nodded. "Got it. Anything else I should know?"

The doctor shook his head. "Not at the moment. When you check out tomorrow, they'll have a number of prescriptions to give you as well as a full regimen of vitamin supplements. The nurse will instruct you on when and how she's supposed to take each. Other than that, there are a few other rules she's going to have to follow but the nurse will tell you those then too."

"Got it. Thank you, doctor. We really appreciate your help."

The doctor grinned wryly. "You do, perhaps. I seemed to get a different impression from her." Naruto blushed slightly. "Don't worry about it, son. She's hardly the worst patient I've ever had to deal with." Then the man sobered up. "Take good care of her, son. That's a good thing you two have. It'd be a shame to lose it."

Naruto resisted the urge to protest the man's assumptions and just thanked him instead. "Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me. To us."

The man grinned brightly, completely unaware of Naruto's insincerity. "It was a pleasure. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm due to head home to _my_ wife. Have a pleasant night."

"You too." Then he sighed and headed back into Tayuya's room. Might as well get some sleep while the woman was still out of it.

--

Naruto woke up several hours later to his ear being painfully twisted. He reflexively pulled away and nearly pulled his ear off when Tayuya didn't let go. "What the hell, Tayuya? Ow!"

She shrugged unrepentantly. "You wouldn't wake up," she said with a smirk.

He scowled at her. "Do you inflict pain on everyone you try to wake up or do I just get special treatment?"

"No, you're pretty much it."

He huffed. "Thanks."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Tayuya asked, "Do you know when they're going to release me?"

Naruto looked outside, gauged the position of the rising sun. "In about an hour, it looks like."

"Good, I'm sick of being stuck in here."

Naruto grinned. "The doctors wanted to keep you here for another week."

She scowled at that. "Hell no! Apparently I should be glad your Gaara wants me out of here as fast as possible." Naruto opened his mouth to defend his friend, but she waved a hand, interrupting him. "Don't worry, I'm not criticizing your butt-buddy. I know he's already done more than he should have."

Naruto paused. "Speaking of which, we need to figure out what you're going to do."

She collapsed backwards against her pillows. "I don't have a whole lot of fucking options, do I? I can't stay here, but there's nowhere else for a fucking missing nin to go. There's not a country out there that wouldn't fuck me up on sight and the same goes double for Sound." She scoffed. "Besides, I'd rather kill myself before I let that pedophilic ass-raper get his hands on me again."

She looked over at Naruto. "That's assuming he's still alive, that is...?"

He grimaced. "Yeah, he's still alive."

"And the Uchiha?" she asked quietly.

Naruto's voice turned grim. "Orochimaru still has him. We managed to interrupt the body transfer two years ago, but we couldn't capture either of them."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"Save it," he grunted. "It's not your fault." He laughed bitterly. "It's funny. I can destroy the single most powerful criminal organization in the world, but I can't even save one dumbass cocksucker."

"Anyways, that's besides the point," he continued. "That certainly doesn't leave you a whole lot of options."

"That doesn't leave me any options," she snapped, before cringing. "Sorry," she muttered. "I'm just a bit on edge. I can't even fend for myself for the next month."

The pair sat there quietly before Naruto said hesitantly, "The way I see it, you only have two choices. You can either try to blend in somewhere and hope you're not discovered or you turn yourself in."

"And either way I get arrested or killed," she said sarcastically. "Yeah, great fucking options those."

"I never said they were good options, did I?" he snapped back. Then he sighed. "It seems like you're not the only one on edge... Look, forget everything else. If you had your choice, what would you do?"

She said nothing before turning her head away from him and muttering, "You're all I have."

Something primal stirred deep inside him at that, but Naruto shoved it away. "There's only so much that I can do and I'm already pushing the limits of that. In the long run, if you're going to stay with me you're going to have to turn yourself in." He paused. "Short-term, I can let you stay in Konoha with me for a few days, perhaps even until your leg heals, but after that you run the risk of being recognized. At which point both of us could get thrown in prison for a very long time."

He rubbed a hand across his face. "I wish I could do more, I really do, but the fact of the matter is that I _cannot_ step any further outside the boundaries of the law." For a moment, he felt all the stress and fatigue of his short life catch up to him. "There are too many people in Konoha just begging for an excuse to put me down." He sighed. "My head hurts..."

She gave a small snort at that. Then she said quietly, "Just for a few days while I figure out what I'm going to do. Then I'll be out of your life for good."

Naruto sighed again. "I don't want you out of my life. I'd like nothing better than for you to come with me to Konoha and continue being an absolute pain in my ass until one or both of us kills the other."

He saw her lip twitch at that and he nudged her arm. "Oh, come on. You know you want to smile."

She couldn't suppress it that time and settled for punching him in the arm instead, "You're being an ass."

He grinned. "Yeah well, let's enjoy it while we still can." He stood up. "I'll tell you what, I'll see what we can do about getting you out of here. Then we'll stop over by Temari's flat, grab some showers, and I'll take you out to breakfast. How's that sound?"

He saw her fists clench at the mention of Temari's name and remembered that the two of them didn't exactly get along terribly well. "Shit, that's right. Well, we can't go to Kankuro's place and Gaara is definitely out of the question," he mused to himself. "I suppose I can just grab a hotel room."

"No." She startled him with how forceful she sounded. "She's not going to do anything to me?"

He shook his head. "She actually told me to apologize for her yesterday. She was the one who showed me the music shop to begin with."

"Then I'll just deal with it." She laughed cheerlessly. "It's kind of funny. I've spent four years terrified she was going to come back and finish the job and now that I finally see her again, I'm taking showers in her house. Fate's a real bitch, isn't she?"

Naruto snorted. "Don't I know it... You pack up your flute and I'll go talk to the doctors."

--

An hour and a half later found Naruto and Tayuya knocking on the door to Temari's apartment. When she didn't answer, Naruto pulled a small key chain out of his pack and flipped through it quickly before choosing one and unlocking her door. He held the door open for her as he answered her unspoken question, "She lets me crash at her apartment when I'm in town."

Closing the door behind them, he dropped his pack beside it. "Let's see," he mused. "If I remember right, the bathroom was this door here." He reached for the handle.

By the time he heard Tayuya's shouted warning, he had already found himself staring at a naked Temari just getting out of the shower. With a yelp, he slammed the door shut just as something heavy impacted it. "When I get out of here, you are so dead Naruto!" he heard her snarl.

He heard Tayuya laughing at him and looked over at her frantically. "Don't just stand there! Help me out here!"

Finding her way over to a couch, she sat down still laughing. "Nope," she said brightly. "I rather think I'm going to enjoy watching you get your ass beat."

"Traitor!" he yelled just as the door slammed open and a pissed Temari stepped out in what Naruto assumed was one of Shikamaru's t-shirts. He was far more concerned with the large metal fan she was holding dangerously in one arm.

"Naruto..." she growled.

"Now, now, Temari." he held his hands up in front of him. "Let's not do anything you're going to regret later on."

"Oh, don't worry." She grinned wickedly, sending shivers down Naruto's spine. "I won't be regretting this a bit..."

--

Ten minutes and many bruises later, Naruto found himself worriedly watching Tayuya as Temari cooled off and finally noticed her guest. Despite the fear he knew she had to be feeling right then, he couldn't help but feel a little proud at the way she was handling herself. Just two days ago she was freaking out at the sight of people and now, being confronted with the object of her worst nightmares, she was meeting Temari's eyes solidly – even if she was shaking a little.

Temari broke the impasse first. "Hey."

"Hey."

"I'm sorry about yesterday," the blonde said cautiously.

Tayuya made a dismissive noise. "I'm sorry about trying to kill you earlier..."

Naruto had no idea what happened, but apparently something passed between the two women as Temari broke out into a wide grin and even Tayuya gave a small smile. Temari stomped over to the door and chucked Naruto's bag at him. "What?! I didn't do anything!"

"Shower!" She pointed at the bathroom door. "Now!"

"But..."

She hefted her fan. "Now..." She realized his hesitation and gave him a reassuring smile. "I promise I'm not going to eat her. Now go before I decide to tell Shikamaru that you were eyeing his goods..."

He skittered through the door. "Gone!"

--

By the time he stepped out of the bathroom door, toweling off his hair, the two women had relaxed enough to hold what looked to be a friendly conversation. And seeing as they stopped when they noticed him, it was apparently about him. Go figure. "I'm finished."

Temari nodded. "Good. Now you can head down to that bakery we always eat at and pick up some bagels for us. And take your time."

"You've got to be kidding me," Naruto whined. "Why do I have to?"

Temari glared. "Because this is my house and I said so."

"Help me out here, Tayuya!"

She smirked at him, "Make sure to grab some blueberry ones."

Naruto gaped at her. "All you women are out to get me, I swear," he moaned.

"What was that, Naruto?" Temari growled.

"I said I'll be back in a little bit." He grabbed his keys and wallet from his pack and shoved him in his pockets.

"That's what I thought," Temari said satisfactorily.

He closed the door behind him with a sigh and began to stroll his way down to the bakery. The sun was just rising on, what was it, day five of his vacation already? Naruto sighed. So much for stress relief.

Still, he thought back to the apartment, he was excited to see Tayuya making such progress. A person of any lesser caliber would have broken long ago, but here she was beginning to interact normally after four years of complete isolation. He was rather in awe of her resilience, though he mused, he probably shouldn't be surprised. She never would have cut it as one of the Sound Four otherwise.

The bakery was unusually busy that morning, so it was some time before he made it back to Temari's apartment with the bagels. Opening the door, he was rather surprised to hear the muted murmur of conversation taking place behind Temari's bathroom door. He shrugged. He had stopped trying to understand women a long time ago. "Food's here!" he shouted, plopping the bag down on Temari's kitchen table.

Fishing a bagel out, he toyed idly with a kunai while he waited for the women to finish up. He sighed, one would think that hardened killers wouldn't spend half as much time getting ready as they did. Finally, after what seemed like hours to the bored blonde, the bathroom door opened and Temari dragged an uncharacteristically shy Tayuya out the door. However, the moment the redhead realized he could see her, she stopped and glared defiantly at him.

It took Naruto a second to realize what was going on before noticing Temari had cleaned up Tayuya's hacked up hair and had combed out the knots in it until it fell luxuriantly down to her shoulders, a few loose hairs framing her face. Knowing that if he didn't say something soon he was going to be in big dog shit – he had seen the results when Shikamaru failed that test with Ino in the short time they had dated, it wasn't pretty – he put on his most charming grin. "I like it. Temari did an amazing job."

He saw her relax as she blushed slightly, but ever prickly she snipped, "Who fucking asked you?" She came and sat down at the table, studiously ignoring him even as he handed her a blueberry bagel so she didn't have to feel around in the bag. Temari joined them a second later and Naruto suddenly became worried at the expectant look in her eye and the roguish grin on her face.

Then Naruto smelled it. Extremely thankful that Tayuya couldn't make out facial expressions he mouthed, 'You didn't?'

Temari's cheshire grin only widened.

The last time he had stayed with her she came back with a purchase of a new perfume she had never tried. Some cactus bloom something or other, he didn't exactly know. What he did know was that it was the single most erotic thing he'd ever smelled in his life. When Temari had sat down next to him, wearing it for the first time, it had caused him to stop mid-sentence and stare, hands twitching as he resisted the urge to grab her and search it out. It had taken him a few seconds to get control of himself and explain to her exactly why it would be a good idea to go wash of the perfume.

And now, knowing exactly what it did to him, she had given it to Tayuya. Had given her a bona fide aphrodisiac knowing full well that Naruto couldn't do a damn thing about it without ruining Tayuya's slowly returning self-confidence. The redhead probably didn't have a single clue about what she was doing to him, though she was picking up on something because she was beginning to turn quite red.

Naruto barely resisted the urge to groan or twitch or do anything else that might alert Tayuya that something was wrong as he felt the heat rising inside of him. Shifting slightly in his seat to try and hide his rapidly growing arousal, he mouthed a heartfelt, 'Fuck you!' to Temari, who's shit-eating grin told him she knew all about his little problem. 'Fuck you!'

It was going to be a long trip out of here.

--

Author's Note:

First things first. Huge thanks to my incredible new beta, **Paradox Jast** _(cue resounding applause)_. Absolutely awesome guy with a whole boat load of ideas for the story. I'd originally planned on wrapping this thing up shortly after they get back to Konoha but I think I'm going to have to keep it going much longer than that now. There's just too much still left to do now. Again, big thanks for him.

Anyways, another little note related to that, since I'm looking at extending the story, my plans have changed somewhat. I believe I made a comment about not wanting to post another story until this one is done two chapters ago. Seeing as how now this story won't be ending anytime in the foreseeable future, I'm going to do things slightly different. I'm going to abandon the two to one thing with Tsa'helu for the time being and just update whenever I'm ready. I still promise to give this one first priority though, especially as I have an awesome new beta to help (^.^). As soon as I reach the original break point I'd planned on, I'm going to throw up another story and I'll update between all three on a rotating basis. You won't be getting updates as quickly but you wouldn't have been getting anything after that point anyways so I figure its a fair trade.

Other than that, thank you as always for reviewing and I wish you all a Happy New Year's.

--

Published: 1.01.10_  
_

Updated: 1.01.10


	10. Chapter 9

**Blindsight**

Chapter 9

by Methinks

-----

It was turning out to be a long trip, though so far it hadn't been as bad as Naruto had originally feared. The heat of the desert, for once, was turning out to be an ally as her sweat diluted the scent and washed the perfume away. That she was riding on Gamakichi's back instead of his was another relief as the added distance did much to calm him down.

Neither the toad or Tayuya had taken well to the idea when Naruto had originally suggested it. Their argument had quickly degenerated into flat-out yelling as the two ignored Naruto completely and shouted insults at the other. Finally, after languishing in the desert heat for the better part of an hour, Naruto had snapped. He couldn't carry Tayuya, he explained, because as they had found out on their way to Suna, carrying her on his back put unwanted pressure on her leg. He wasn't about to let all his work, and her improvements, become undone simply for the sake of her pride.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a similarly reasonable argument for Gamakichi, so he just promised the frog the biggest meal he had ever had. The glint in the summon's eyes told Naruto that he was going to greatly regret turning him into a 'slimy wart-ridden over-sized lunch item.'

Naruto had tried to forestall any more comments by setting off but that only sparked the redhead's ire in his direction, as she demanded to know just where they were heading. Apparently she hadn't appreciated hearing he had no idea. His hasty defense explaining how he had been simply trying to decide between Konoha, Tanzaku Gai, and Wave had been drowned out by a wave of insults regarding his apparent indecision, insults the irate Gamakichi quickly began adding too.

Fortunately their tirade hadn't lasted too long before the two had realized they'd been agreeing on something and shut up. They'd begun making good time towards Konoha after that. They had slowed down as the sun reached it's zenith, the heat had become too much for them to safely continue at the same pace, but the moment the sun began to dip down behind them, Naruto had picked up the pace again and it was with no small sense of relief that they entered the borders of River Country and the desert began to give way to forest.

Naruto had set a due easterly course in order to escape the desert as quickly as possible; he didn't want the recovering Tayuya to spend any more time in the desert heat than necessary, and forced himself to move faster as their path turned to the north-west. He was determined to reach Fire Country territory before stopping for the night.

The sun had been down for several hours when they finally crossed the border into Naruto's home country, fortunately without discovery by one of Konoha's patrols. They ran for another hour before Naruto finally called a halt, much to the relief of both toad and passenger. Dropping his pack, he helped Tayuya down off Gamakichi's back. With another look of disgust, the frog tossed the rolls he had been carrying on the ground at the two human's feet before dismissing himself sullenly. Naruto sighed; he was going to be a pain in the ass to deal with for a long time. Gamakichi would get it over though – or so he hoped. He really didn't want to have to argue like Jiraiya did with Gamabunta every time he summoned Gamakichi for something.

Thoughts of the toad quickly disappeared, however, as Naruto collapsed backward onto the ground with no small relief, joining Tayuya on the leaf covered soil. Contrary to popular opinion, he was not Rock Lee and could not run for days on end without breaking a sweat - even with the fox. He just recovered from it afterward near instantaneously.

"So... have you decided yet?" asked Tayuya.

Naruto looked over at the redhead, who was now sitting up and playing nervously with a twig she'd picked up. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we're headed towards Konoha, aren't we? That's what Lunch Meat was saying at least. That we were going to make it there by tomorrow at this rate."

Naruto shook his head. "Nah. We're actually headed to Wave Country. I have friends there we can stay with while we try and figure out what you want to do. It's out of the way of both Oto and Konoha so there's very little risk of discovery. The country's rather small, but the town we're going to is a big trade hub so it should be easy for you to blend in. Plus, the weather's supposed to be beautiful there this time of year. It's about as perfect a place for you to rehabilitate as any."

"Why not Konoha? Don't you need to go back there? I..." She paused hesitantly before muttering almost too quietly to hear, "I don't want to get you into any trouble. You've already done more than enough for me."

"You mean besides everything I just said? For starters, I still have about another two weeks before I need to be back in the village. And it'd just be plain stupid to take you there anyways."

"Are you calling me stupid, fuck-head?!" she snapped.

Naruto sighed. Why did he always have to pick the touchy women? "No, Tayuya, I'm not. But just think about what you're saying for a minute. While there wouldn't be any problem getting you into the village – Temari forged some papers for you that will get you past the guards easily – what would you do after that? I suppose, if you wanted to, you could probably stay in Konoha with very little risk of discovery. Keep your head down and blend in with the civilian populace and in all likelihood no one would be the wiser."

"Then why not just do that?" She asked, her voice becoming slightly dangerous. "Why can't I stay in Konoha with you?"

Naruto dropped his head back down, his voice going uncharacteristically quiet. "Because if you do that, we can never see each other again. People would start to notice if I started seeking out some foreign civilian and then they'd start asking questions that you don't want to answer. Plus, if you stay with me, eventually you will be recognized. The other four who went on the Sasuke rescue mission with me are still good friends and they all have good memories."

Tayuya was silent for a moment. "You never told me you went on that mission..."

Naruto shrugged. "I didn't think it was all that important."

"I guess not." She paused. "Which one were you? Wait, don't answer that. You were the blonde dumbass in the bright fucking orange, weren't you?"

Naruto laughed. "That would be me."

She gave a small chuckle. "Which one of us bastards did you go up against?"

His smile fell slightly, "I fought Kimimaro for a little bit before reinforcements arrived. Once they did, they took over and I went after Sasuke."

"What happened then?" she asked quietly.

"We fought until he activated his level two... he beat me and escaped," Naruto said sadly.

"I'm sorry..."

"Forget about it. You were right, he would have left us even if you hadn't been there," Naruto said grimly. "It was his fault, not yours."

She laid back down on the ground beside him. "Tell me another story."

At that he cocked an eyebrow. "What?"

"This is getting too fucking depressing. So tell me a story."

"Let's see here..." An idea popped into his head and he smacked a fist into his palm excitedly. "How about when I finally learned how to water walk!"

"What's so interesting about that? Even the worst genin knows how to do that." He felt himself blush and she burst out laughing when he didn't jump to defend himself, "No way! You're telling me that you couldn't water walk?!"

"Shut up! I turned out all right, didn't I?" he yelled.

She scoffed playfully. "That's a matter of opinion!"

"So cruel...!" She laughed and he smiled, it sounded even nicer with her healed throat.

"So, what happened?" she asked between giggles.

"It was during the break between the second and third rounds of my first Chuunin Exam, the one you guys attacked. My normal sensei had decided to focus his attention on Sasuke and had passed me off to another Jounin teacher and a closet pervert..."

Naruto felt a lot more relaxed than he had in a long time as he told her all about playing tag with Ebisu and the antics of the Super Pervert Jiraiya. Her laughter was infectious and there were several times he had to stop because he was laughing too hard as well. The two of them stayed up well into the night talking and trying to enjoy their companionship as much as they could. Both could feel that their peaceful days together were rapidly winding to a close.

–

Naruto woke up first and stretched himself out with a big yawn. Sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he looked over to find Tayuya still sleeping, the smallest of smiles on her face as she lay turned towards him. He was pleased to note there was absolutely no comparison between how she looked now and how she had when he'd first found her two weeks ago. The sickly pallor was gone from her skin and she wasn't nearly as gaunt, though she was still a long way from losing her unnatural thinness. Even so, with her hair tidied up and the dirt and grime scrubbed from her skin she was really one of the prettier girls he had had the pleasure of meeting. He had no doubts that she'd blow them all out of the water once she was at full health.

He found himself slowly reaching out and running a thumb lightly over her cheek, immediately feeling a rush of warmth spread through him as she turned her head into his touch with a contented murmur. Reluctantly, he pulled his hand away with a sigh. He should never have let himself get this attached to her; they'd both known from the start that there was no way that they could possibly work out.

Regretfully, he shook her awake. "Hey," he said quietly as she sleepily sat up, "We need to get going."

Tayuya looked over at him blearily, obviously still half-asleep. Apparently, she'd lost the ability to come to full alertness right after waking up. No doubt it was one of the many things she had lost over the past four years that she didn't want to be reminded of.

Not that Naruto minded her like this, the look on her face was quite adorable. She yawned and stretched in a way that reminded Naruto more than a little bit of a cat. "It's time already?"

"Yeah," he said quietly. "It's time."

–

Summoning Gamakichi went only marginally better than the day before. While there were far fewer insults thrown between them, the looks both of them kept shooting him left no doubt in Naruto's mind that forgiveness was far – _far_ – from their minds. Most of the morning passed in an awkward silence until they stopped beside a small shaded lake for a quick lunch.

As his two companions got comfortably settled, Naruto set about unsealing some of the various provisions Temari had provided him with before they'd left. With the help of a couple shadow clones, it was only a matter of minutes before he'd had a couple of sandwiches made up for him and Tayuya. A third clone was out turning over rocks and rotting logs to find insects and worms for Gamakichi.

Mid-way through lunch, the silence finally got to be too much for the blond. "Hey, have I told you about the prank I pulled on the Hokage monument?"

Tayuya looked his way before shaking her head, "This is going to be good, isn't it?" The she paused and gave a genuine laugh. "Wait, I don't even have to ask, do I? This is you we're talking about after all..."

"Nope," Naruto responded brightly before launching into the story. Tayuya couldn't stop laughing as Naruto gave quite the detailed narrative of what might have been his greatest prank of all-time. When Naruto began telling her about the merry chase he had led the Konoha ANBU on before finally getting caught by his academy teacher, she laughed so hard she began to tear up.

When he finally finished, Tayuya looked at him with a wide smile. "You just cause problems wherever you go, don't you?"

"You have no idea," cut in Gamakichi, for the first time since lunch began. "I've got so many stories I could tell you, it's not even funny."

Naruto felt a distinct chill travel up his spine as the redhead turned to face the frog with an interested look on her face. "Oh? Come on, I've got to hear some of these..."

The pair spent the next hour laughing over some of the worst mishaps of his life before Naruto called an end to lunch in a desperate attempt to get the humiliation to stop. It was obvious Gamakichi was doing this as punishment. The damn toad had sworn never to tell at least two of those stories and by the smug look on his face was having absolutely no problems breaking his word.

Unfortunately for the blonde, the damage had already been done. The two kept on talking even once they'd gotten back on the road, their previous animosity apparently forgotten. Naruto sighed and picked up the pace, trying to tune them out. He almost would have just preferred to deal with the perfume himself.

Almost.

–

Gamakichi spent the next couple of hours regaling Tayuya with story after story before suddenly slipping into silence mid-story. Naruto, who'd been trying his best not to pay attention, looked quickly back at the abrupt stop, worried something had happened. Gamakichi gave him a reassuring wave and sped up to run beside him. "Nothing's wrong, boss. She just fell asleep. Poor girl's exhausted."

Naruto gave him an incredulous look. "Poor girl? _Poor girl?!_ What ever happened to her being a screeching banshee bitch?"

The toad shrugged. "Eh, she's not that bad once you get to know her. Besides, for whatever reason you seem to like her so I figured I should at least give her a chance. Don't want my boss's woman banning me from the house."

Naruto choked in surprise. "Your boss's wom... _what?!"_ he yelped, once he'd ceased coughing.

The toad gave him a sly grin and a wink. "Oh, don't even try playing dumb with me. I've known you far too long to be fooled by that little act of yours, even if your other human friends still buy it. I've seen the way you look at her and I fully intend to be there to teach your little litter of red-headed, blue-eyed brats the best ways to drive you straight up the wall. I have to admit, boss, I didn't think the woman existed who could give you kids worse than yourself, but you hit the jackpot."

Naruto's coughing fit came back in full. _"K- kids?!"_

The toad grinned. "Yeah. You know, the snot-nosed, loud mouthed results of the birds and bees. If I had to guess..." he trailed off ominously. "Nine. That sounds about right, doesn't it? Nine kids?"

This time Naruto turned to stare incredulously at his amphibian friend before running straight into a tree. The blonde could vaguely hear the toad cracking up as he fell the thirteen feet from the tree to the ground. He laid there for several moments, trying to catch his breath, before climbing painfully to his feet to face Gamakichi, who was still chuckling even as he jumped down to land beside him. "Ha ha, you bastard. Very funny."

"What?" asked the toad, his voice laden with false innocence. "Is nine not enough? I figured Kyuubi would appreciate the honor but if you don't think nine's enough then I'm sure the fox can just deal."

"Gamakichi..."

"Of course, I bet you could console him in lots of other ways."

"I'm warning you..."

"What do you think, maybe Tayuya's a closet furry? Think she'll like your magical tails?" He waggled his eye ridges suggestively.

"Okay, now you're crossing the line, toad boy..."

"Bet you she's a fan of 'foxy' style. You said she can grow horns, right? Oh, damn... what were those things called?" He paused for a second before giving Naruto a grin worthy of the Super Pervert himself. "Handlebars! You know, 'cause you could grab hold of them when you... do the Canine Cha Cha."

A small dollop of blood dripped from Naruto's nose as his Jiraiya-fed imagination pictured it before he shook himself out of his stupor and turned on the amused amphibian and scowled. "I warned you, Gamakichi. I've never tried Thousand Years of Pain on a toad before but I'm sure I can make it work." Naruto began flashing through the seals to form a Doton clone, not particularly wanting to use shadow clones to attempt it and accidentally absorb the memory.

The toad back-pedaled quickly, recognizing the technique. "Wait, boss, wait! Can I just say one last thing? Please?"

Naruto paused, before asking cautiously. "What?"

All of the sudden, the toad's penitent expression turned crafty and Naruto cursed vehemently as the amphibian jounced the sleeping red-head on his back and shouted, "Tayuya! Naruto's fantasizing about doing you from behind!"

"Huh?" Tayuya mumbled as she sat up before the toad's statement finally registered. An impressive growl echoed from within her chest before the former Oto-nin shrieked, "_Naruto!"_ The blonde immediately began running, not even bothering to try and defend himself, cursing the toad all the way. Gamakichi immediately began following him, pausing just long enough to allow Tayuya to grab a handful of nuts from a nearby tree to begin throwing at the fleeing ninja. Spurred on by the organic projectiles, Naruto started running faster, careful not to slow down or look back for fear of being hit, and thus missed the moment the red-head ran out of nuts and began to blush as she imagined that particular scenario herself.

–

When they finally stopped and settled down for the night, neither Naruto nor Tayuya were able to look at each other without blushing and Gamakichi could barely contain his cackling at the chaos he'd caused. Naruto shot him a nasty look as he heard the toad try and turn yet another laugh into a cough. With a disgusted look and a single hand seal, the blonde dismissed him.

The next hour passed in awkward silence as the two danced nervously around the metaphorical giant fox in the room. It was with no small relief that Naruto heard her breathing finally settle into soft snoring as exhaustion overtook her. He began performing a few breathing exercises of his own to try and release some of the tension in his muscles before he finally succumbed to sleep and several very pleasant dreams of Tayuya.

The two woke up at the same time the next morning, both determined to put the previous day's awkwardness behind them – a feat made significantly more difficult on Naruto's part by the hidden erection he was sporting that he was desperately trying to pass off as nothing more than simple morning wood. An act of deception made significantly more difficult once Tayuya began to stretch out the cramps in her muscles from sleeping on the ground all night. If he hadn't known better, he'd have sworn the redhead knew exactly what his problem was and was doing this to him deliberately.

A few seconds later his last few remaining doubts disappeared as she bent forward in a pose that had absolutely no practical stretching application at all outside of giving him a perfect view of her shapely derriere. Though any ire at her teasing disappeared when his mind registered that if she could bend that way when she wasn't at full health...

"Enjoying the show?"

Her smug voice shocked him out of his thoughts and he hastily wiped away his small nose bleed as he blushed. "I don't know what you're talking about." he asked as innocently as he could manage. Which wasn't much.

"Uh-huh, I'm sure you don't. Pervert."

This time, Naruto figured it'd be wiser to simply keep his mouth shut and began to pack up the camp, leaving Tayuya to quietly gloat over her victory. Finally, once everything had been sealed away and the camp remains carefully disguised, he summoned Gamakichi in order to get them under way. This time he was grateful once the toad began to regale Tayuya with tales of his mistakes. As humiliating as some of them were, he was man enough to admit they were funny after the fact and they did a remarkable job of putting his persistent fantasies of Tayuya on her knees out of his mind.

The day continued on much the same fashion until Naruto began to recognize many of the surrounding landmarks from his first trip to Wave all those years ago. He immediately reclaimed his position of storyteller, regaling both of his companions with several new stories as the familiar surroundings brought fresh memories to mind, until the three finally arrived at the massive bridge leading to Wave. Naruto couldn't help but groan, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

Naruto turned to Gamakichi to find the toad wide-eyed and staring disbelievingly at the large sign over the bridge with wide eyes. The amphibian summon slowly lifted a webbed hand and pointed towards the sign. "Does that really say what I think it says?"

Before Naruto could confirm or deny, Tayuya's irritated voice rose from Gamakichi's back. "What does what say? It was obviously important enough for us to stop moving."

Gamakichi started chuckling when Naruto remained silent, chuckles that bloomed into full-blown laughter when the blonde finally sighed and reluctantly nodded. Since the toad didn't reply to her question but instead started laughing aloud, Tayuya asked again, punctuating the question with a hard punch to Gamakichi's shoulder. The pain finally helped the toad control himself long enough to gasp between laughs, "The Great Naruto Bridge. They... they named this... the Great Naruto Bridge."

Tayuya paused for just a moment before she burst out laughing as well. "They named a bridge after this idiot? Oh that's rich! For what? Defending the town from the vicious girly boy? What was his name again?"

"Hey," snapped Naruto defensively. "Haku was still a strong ninja!"

"You thought he was a girl! Bet you thought he was cute too?" When Naruto didn't respond right away, Tayuya started laughing harder. "Oh! You did, didn't you? That's too perfect!" Then she gasped and snapped her fingers in mock realization. "Oh my. That explains everything! You're gay and you're in love with the Uchiha! No wonder you wanted to get him back so much!"

Naruto scowled at her as both her and the toad burst into new laughter. "Oh, shut up. You're all just jealous you don't have a cool bridge named after you too."

–----

Author's Notes:

Ladies and Gentlemen, here it is... chapter nine of the great and magnificent 'Blindsight'. Hope ya'll enjoyed it, especially as it's been so long since my last update.

In that department, I want it known that since January I've moved cities, transferred schools, and picked up a begun working a brand new job, so my life has been a little crazy as of late. I just haven't been able to muster up either the inspiration, the creativity, or even the energy to sit down and write. Fortunately, I just quit the first job I picked up after the move and gotten a different one - one I not only enjoy but actually leaves me psyched to start writing at the end of the day. So hopefully you won't have to wait near as long this time for the next chapter.

Anyways, let me know what you thought. And on that note, let me give a big thank you to everyone who's reviewed this story so far. I usually try to individually message everyone who's reviewed, but there was just so many of you this time - and I'm so gorram tired right now - that I'm just going to settle for this.

Also, a big round of applause to my beta, Paradox Jast. I put this chapter together in a matter of hours on Tuesday - so if it seems rushed, problematic, or error-ridden, that'd be why - and yet he still found the time to not only fix all my mistakes, but give me a number of extremely good ideas to add, and then get it back to me in time for me to put it up today. So thanks again. Without your hard work, I don't know where I'd be.

Enjoy ya'll. I'm going to bed.

_Update:_ A big thanks to Juopunumies for pointing out a number of mistakes I'd let slip past my notice last night (all my own fault, not the beta's). I really appreciate it.

-----

Published: 04.02.10

Updated: 04.03.10


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